“Cash is king,” as the old investment adage goes. Question is: How do you go about getting it – especially in a tough climate like this one? After all, cash is only king if you have it.

Investors who trade actively and are closely in touch with the ebb and flow of opinion on Wall Street have one enormous barrier to good investment performance: They will often be seduced by what’s fashionable – whether it be in terms of sectors, countries or individual stocks.

Market forecasting can seem like a futile exercise. After all, 95% of the time, predicting what will happen next is impossible. But Justice Litle says its the huge opportunities on offer in the other 5% that make investing worthwhile. Here, he explains how traders can draw inspiration from ice-hockey legend Wayne Gretzky…

Whether you agree with them or not, the bailout programs will keep on coming. Keith Fitz-Gerald looks at the key impact these will have on the dollar, commodities and global stocks. He says we could be in line for a market rebound by mid-2009, and suggests six ways to prepare your portfolio now.

“Living on $1700 a month sounds like a very slow, painful existence. Not what I planned for in my retirement.”  If you aren’t already aware of it, the baby boomers have started to retire. They first hit the system a few years ago. Over the next twenty to thirty years, our culture will be challenged as never before by the largest shift of population ever to leave a work force and begin retirement.

The U.S. dollar is now under incredible pressure, and the timing couldn’t be worse. The U.S. economy is also sinking fast. This places the Fed between a rock and a hard place. To support the greenback, the Fed needs to raise U.S. interest rates…but their classic response to the threat of an economic recession is to lower those same rates.