By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): We all have a friend like him. For me it’s a guy named Greg. He has some great ideas and his entrepreneurial spirit runs deep, but for some reason, his plans never seem to make it to fruition. Somewhere from the drawing board to the production line, he runs into a debilitating snag.

Most of the time, it’s money.

David Fessler, Advisory Panelist for Investment U, looks at the state of alternative energy and why conventional experts may be wrong about the industry.

The price of gold has surged this year, taking gold shares upwards with it. Readers of my Xcelerated Profits Report have rung the register with 45% profits on Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) and a triple-digit winner on Golden Star Resources (NYSE: GSS). We’re also up big on Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) at the moment.

All is good, right?

On the surface, perhaps. But not if you believe what the options market is saying…

Keith Fitz-Gerald (Money Morning):
With all the financial woes in the global economy, the worst thing an investor can do is to “freeze up.” With all the ups and downs in the market, it’s all too easy for investors to allow their emotions to take control. That’s when the smallest mistakes turn into the biggest mistakes.

Investors might forget we’re in a bear market because investing this year has looked easy. Those who have missed out on the rally must be tearing their hair out. Their money burns a hole in their pockets.

The common adage has most every rally climbing a wall of worry. “If I buy now, I might get crushed for the fifth or sixth or seventh time in the past 10 years… but if I wait, the market might run on me, and I won’t see a decent entry price like this for years to come…”

Last month the first ETF adhering to strict Islamic beliefs, Dow Jones Islamic Market International (NYSE: JVS), began trading.  Following Shariah law, the index excludes anything close to investing in “sin stocks” or firms that produce or market alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons, or pornography.

We’ve been so caught up watching stocks soar we haven’t paid much attention to one of our favorite asset classes: commodities.

If you’ve been following this column over the last month, you’ve likely made some money by shorting the Dow Jones Industrial Average.