The United States Natural Gas Fund LP (NYSE: UNG) resumed issuing new shares Monday, ending a long drought for the exchange-traded fund (ETF). UNG, which tracks price changes in natural gas, hasn't issued new creation baskets (blocks of 10,000 units) since June, thanks in part to newly enacted position limits on the federal and exchange level.

While it's back to business as usual, traders should still proceed with caution when it comes to this commodity-based fund. UNG warned late Friday that its units are still trading at a premium to its net asset value (NAV), which could spell trouble for investors.

With ever growing uncertainty whether our economy will face inflation or deflation in the months to come given recent government spending, what is certain is that no one wants to see their fixed income lose purchasing power. Unlike most bonds that pay out a fixed dollar amount in interest, treasury inflation protected bonds (TIPs) pay out a fixed amount over the consumer-price index (CPI), making them a popular choice for investor anticipating the economy to experience inflation. If inflation is higher than projected, the government adds to your principal on a TIP and makes up the difference!

Not only does owning TIPs allow one to keep up with monthly bills that are increasing in step with inflation, they are an important asset class to consider when determining an asset allocation strategy. TIPs enable one to further diversify a portfolio. Bonds are ideal for those not able to stomach much risk and TIPs in particular protect one's fixed income from eroding.

"While global climate change may be over-politicized, there's no disputing that the issue is real," says Larry Edelson. In his Real Wealth, he looks at two favorite exchange-traded funds that invest in the water sector.

He explains, "Food shortages and the lack of fresh drinking water are likely the most acute and immediate problems. For example, Northwestern India is running out of water, China is raising water prices to curb use and Mexico recently restricted the water supply amid a shortage.

"Domestically, unbridled use of groundwater in Arizona is a potential disaster. The problem is pipelines and canals don't extend far enough to deliver water to everyone. And unrestrained drilling in outlying areas is draining the supply.

The most recent data released from the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meetings show that the Fed remains relatively positive, albeit cautious, about an economic recovery in the U.S. This means that the Fed can start planning to wind down some of its debt buying programs including the its current program to purchase $300 billion in Treasury debt.

While the data was just released on Wednesday, the meetings actually took place on August 11th and 12th. But the results still merit scrutiny, especially for investors who may wonder what this could mean for their portfolios. Let's take a look.

So you finally get to see some growth figures from the ISM and then the market sells off again. We have enjoyed a heck of a run-up and now trading desks are lightening up to boot as we get closer to the 3-day weekend. Today was such a poor result on the market internals that even all the defensive stocks were dropping. Even inverse-leverage ETF's were getting traction again. Bill Gross's bleak outlook probably only added insult to injury today.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,310.60 -185.68 (-1.96%)
S&P 500 998.04 -22.58 (-2.21%)
Nasdaq 1,968.89 -40.17 (-2.00%)

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All of a sudden, investors don't seem to have a care in the world. The market is going up and up, and complacency has set in. One way investors measure this complacency is through an index called the "VIX." VIX measures the implied volatility of a basket of options on the S&P 500 index. The more investors are willing to pay for puts and calls, the more there is an implication that they are "nervous."

If you are a contrarian investor, the way you read the VIX is: 1) if you buy stocks now you are moving with the momentum of the market; and 2) the market could get really "choppy" soon, and 3) if you wait patiently to buy stocks after fear has returned to the market, you will likely enjoy a substantial gain when volatility returns to the market.

My investment world leads me to deal with many brokers and I am constantly amazed at the bad advice that is so prevalent in the financial industry. I think many brokerage houses remain conflicted, try as they might to be otherwise.

Here is the latest example to reach my doorstep. We have personal assets with Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) and they publish an in-house magazine for their clients called "onInvesting". In the summer 2009 issue listed under the heading of "Expert Insight" there is an article titled "How Sector Investing Can Work for You". I could not find a link to the story online. It is written by Brad Sorenson, CFA, director, Sector Analysis, Schwab Center for Financial Research.

During the last eight months, with the market bouncing up and down, there have been times when I did not look too smart buying stocks through it all.

Of course I looked the most foolish on March 9, when I wrote the prophetic Nostradamus was a punk! Have we reached bottom? Some folks were commenting that they were staying in cash until the DJIA dropped to 5,000. Today that looks highly improbable, even if the market gives something back over the next few months.

There must be some readers that also have contrarian instincts and made good money this year. This is a reminder to take something off the table. It's time to book some gains. We all did great in 1999 and 2000 only to give it all back and then some. Don't let that happen to you again!

With President Obama at the helm it seems as though the light might be shining on the economic horizon. If you're of this opinion then now might be a good time to invest some of your hard earned savings in the banking industry.

But what banking firm do you decide to go with? Rather than selecting just one bank, how about hedging your bets by investing in many diverse banks from all over the country? An exchange traded fund (ETF) is a great way to do just that. By investing in the ETF PowerShares Dynamic Banking (PJB) you get shares of several different banks. PJB seeks to replicate the Dynamic Banking Intellidex index and invests at least 90% of assets in common stocks that comprise that index. Among their holdings in the PJB ETF are BancFirst Corporation(NASDAQ GS: BANF) BancFirst's holding company, Capital Federal Financial(NASDAQ GS: CFFN) the holding company for Capitol Federal Savings Bank, and Northern Trust Corporation(NASDAQ GS: NTRS) Northern Trust Company's holding company.

The S&P 500 double-bottom finally collapsed Feb. 27, after holding firm for more than four months. But the strong 800 to 820 support zone gave way several weeks before, led by the Dow Industrials, which cracked its support at 7,940 even before that.

The breakdown hit a plateau at the Dow 7,390 area, which also marked the market's low on Nov. 21. After several days of indecision, sellers drove stocks to new lows and the Dow headed for lower ground. So where do we go from here?

If you are picking stocks for your own portfolio, then you are competing against all of the smart stock pickers in the world. In fact, when you're buying or selling, there's someone on the other side betting against you.

While it may be fun, this may not be profitable in that you may end up underperforming the stock market as a whole. In fact, there's a greater than 50% chance, you're losing money by picking stocks.

The old adage to new investors has always been to invest in something that you use or believe in. Right now, you're probably reading this online and there's a good chance you got online through a broadband connection, so why not invest in the companies that continue to supply equipment for the growth of the broadband revolution?

The exchange-traded fund (ETF) Broadband HOLDRs (NYSE: BDH) is a great way to invest in the broadband industry without having to select one company. BDH consists of about 22 companies that develop, manufacture and market products and services that facilitate the transmission of data, video and voice more quickly and efficiently than traditional telephone line communications.

Last week, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) announced that worldwide semiconductor sales dropped to $17.4 billion from $22.3 billion in December, a drop of 22%. Compared to November, December's sales were 16.6% lower. For comparison, November 2007 chip sales fell only 10%.

SIA President George Scalise noted that weakened demand for automotive products, personal computers, cell phones, and corporate information technology products. However, Scalise said the largest revenue declines were "in the memory sector where price pressure more than offset significant growth in total bit shipments."

One of the buzzwords that is currently in vogue in the investment community is biotechnology. This is a broad-based field that covers technological applications in any biological system, meaning humans, animals, agriculture, and medicines. This is a booming science and the investment field offers many opportunities for wealth accumulation.

If you don't want to spend countless hours trying to understand not just financials, but scientific and technical jargon that biotech companies harbor, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may be the better choice for investing in the biotechnology industry.

An ETF is similar to buying a share of a company, but instead of getting one particular company you're investing in a bundle of companies within a particular field or specialty. It's a great way to invest in something you believe in while still hedging your bets and having a bit of diversity.

Here's an idea if you are worried about your heating bills this winter. The price of natural gas is crashing. The price decreases last week continued a down trend that's gone on for six months. Why? The economic downturn slows demand for gas and many companies are announcing layoffs and closing plants around the country. Reduced prices for natural gas are also a result of growing capacity in the U.S. because of increases in production at new fields. Natural gas prices are at multi-year lows falling from 65% from more than $13.31 per MMBtu (the way gas is measured) in July 2008 to under $5 -- the lowest since October 13, 2006.

United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that reflects the price of natural gas in the United States. UNG attempts to mirror the performance, net expenses, of natural gas at the Henry Hub, Louisiana.