What's the latest craze? The iPhone? Kindle? A super-lightweight notebook pc?

All of the above are eye-openers. But one could argue that the biggest craze is the natural gas exchanged-traded fund, the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG).

Several years ago, I heard a presentation from Laurence Fink, the mastermind behind the asset management giant, BlackRock (NYSE: BLK). At the time, he gave some frank advice; that is, he warned that investors needed to be very cautious.

Of course, it was spot-on (and saved me lots of money). And, I'm sure Fink's investors also appreciated the counsel.

Well, this week BlackRock became the king of asset management because of its $13.5 billion acquisition of Barclays Global Investors (NYSE: BCS). In all, the assets under management will now amount to $2.8 trillion.

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."

Investors are always evaluating the landscape to determine where they should put their money. With all of the uncertainty in the banking sector, they are moving into gold. In Europe in particular, exchange traded funds increased their holdings to more than 40 million ounces. This has the effect of establishing a cushion under the market.

The spot "gold fix" in London reached an all-time high of $1030.80 per ounce. On the futures market, gold traded above $900.00 per ounce. Traders expect the price to consolidate at these levels and move a bit higher.

The major indices continue to test their November lows, with the Dow making an intraday penetration that -- had it stuck -- would no doubt have led to an immediate test of the bear market lows.

But, again, the markets held above the fragile support line at Dow 8,000 and the S&P 500's support zone at 800-820.

How long this support will hold is anybody's guess, but Friday's reversal from a crushing opening was impressive despite its lack of convincing volume.

With all of our internal indicators grossly oversold and sentiment clearly bearish, the market should rally from its current support.

For that reason, traders should grab their favorite long 2x exchange-traded fund (ETF) and, despite the risk, go for a trade that could result in a profit from a 400- to 500-point advance in the Dow.

2x ETFs target two-times the daily return of the underlying index. My favorite trade for today is the Ultra QQQ ProShares (NYSE: QLD).

However, the market does not always accommodate our most ardent wish, so despite the likelihood of a rally, traders must set stop-loss orders under last week's lows or take on an enormous risk of loss.

A daily close under the intraday lows of last week would most certainly lead to a test of the November low and could even lead to a general market rout.

So, be careful out there and only risk what you can afford to lose.

Sam Collins is a contributor to OptionsZone.com.

For 26 years, at the start of each year, I've conducted an annual survey of newsletter advisors, asking for their favorite investment for the coming year. Until 2 or 3 years ago, their responses were almost always individual stocks and an occasional mutual fund.

Increasingly in recent years, many advisors have found their favorite positions to be exchange traded funds, whereby they can invest in a sector, region, or strategy without the inherent risk of an individual company. Indeed, in this year survey of 75 advisors, fully 1 out of 5 advisors chose ETFs.

ETFs were a popular choice for those seeking global exposure. Mark Salzinger, editor of The Investor's ETF Report, selects the S&P China SPDR (NYSE: GXC) as his favored play. (Read the full article here.)

Nick Vardy sees opportunity in China, but also sees potential in a broader range of emerging global markets. The editor of Global Stock Investor looks to the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (ASE: EEM) as his top idea for 2009. (Read the full article here.)

Carl Delfeld of Chartwell Advisors also wants to own a basket of emerging markets stocks, but only small caps. His pick is the WisdomTree Emerging Market Small Cap (NYSE: DGS). (Read the full article here.)

Jim Lowell takes a similar view -- chosing global small caps -- but adds a further restriction. His recommended ETF limits its holdings to dividend paying stocks. Hence, the top pick in his Marketwatch ETF Trader is the WisdomTree International Small Cap Dividend (NYSE: DLS). (Read the full article here.)

ETFs an also be used to play a specific sector, such as consumer stocks. Leonard Goodall sees upside in companies making the "basics" such as soda, toothpaste and soap. In his No-Load Fund Investor, his top way to play this trend is the Consumer Staples ETF (NYSE: XLP). (Read the full article here.)

In addition to using ETFs to invest in a region, country or sector, these vehicles can also be used to invest in a certain strategy. For example, Tom Bishop, editor of BI Research, chooses the PowerShares Value Line Industry Rotation ETF (NYSE: PYH), which rotates its holdings to only include stocks that earn Value Line's top investment rating. (Read the full article here.)

Doug Fabian, editor of Successful Investing, looks to PowerShares DB Crude (NYSE: DXO), an exchange-traded note. While this leveraged position goes up twice as much as the underlying index when it rises, it also goes down twice as much when the index declines. (Read the full article here.)

Paul Tracy, editor of StreetAuthority Market Advisor takes a similar approach, but rather than speculate on the price of oil and gas, he looks to ProShares Ultra Oil & Gas (NYSE: DIG), which invests in a basket of stocks operating within these sectors. (Read the full article here.)

The most popular choice in this year's survey was ETFs investing in gold. Both Vivian Lewis, editor of Global Investing, recommends the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD); it's price reflects 1/10th of an ounce of gold. (Read the full article here.)

Mary Anne Aden, editor of The Aden Forecast, also selects the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) as her top investment ideas for the coming year. (Read the full article here.)

Mark Leibovit, market timer and editor of VRTrader, holds a long-term bullish view on gold and opts for upside leverage. His top pick is the PowerShares DB Gold Double Long (NYSE: DGP). (Read the full article here.)

Pamela Aden, co-editor for The Aden Forecast, also sees upside potential in gold but prefers to invest in the companies that mine for the precious metal. Her top pick is the Market Vectors Gold Miners (NYSE: GDX). (Read the full article here.)

For greater leverage (and higher risk), Steve Rawls, editor of Tipping Point Stocks, suggests the ProShares Ultra Gold (NYSE: UGL), which moves twice the rate of the underlying London gold price. (Read the full article here.)

Mike Larson, editor of Money & Markets, sees downside risk in financial stocks. But rather than try and select which stock might fall, he opts for a basket of financial players with the ProShares Trust Short Financials (NYSE: SEF). As an "inverse" fund, this moves in the opposite direction of the underlying index. (Read the full article here.)

And for even higher risk and volatility, Michael Shulman, editor of ChangeWave Shorts, looks to the ProShares UltraShort Financials (NYSE: SKF), an inverse double fund. Not only does it move in the opposite direction of financial stocks, but it moves twice as much. (Read the full article here.)

Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers a daily look at the latest market commentary and favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

Whether it's a recession or an economic boom, one thing doesn't change, the need for energy. And until technology leaps ahead, coal is the largest producer of fuel for the generation of electricity in the world. It's also the most abundant fossil fuel in the United States. Coal is obviously not recession immune as people tighten the reigns on their lives and cut back on electricity consumption, but the shear necessity of electricity makes the coal industry fairly resistant. An investment in an exchange traded fund (ETF) that is centered on the coal industry is a great way to hedge your bets by investing in a pool of successful companies in the coal field.

Market Vectors Coal ETF (NYSE: KOL) seeks to replicate the price and yield performance of the Stowe Coal index, which provides exposure to publicly traded companies worldwide that derive greater than 50% of their revenues from the coal industry. With KOL you'll own shares of some of the most noted coal companies in the world, including Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI), which specializes in steam and metallurgical coal; CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX), a large provider of fuel for electricity in the United States; Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR), another leader in steam and metallurgical coal; and Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU), an exploration miner and coal producer worldwide, as well as several other highly rated coal companies across the globe.

Market Vector charges only a 0.65% fee, a fraction what a professional money manager would charge you to analyze research and pick coal mining stocks with this level of global reach. Recently KOL has gone through a typical correction for this commodity sector, but then suffered a greater hit as Asia saw a 20% decline in spot prices for thermal coal. The result? A better deal for those currently willing to dive into coal as an investment. KOL is up 14%, so maybe there's some light at the end of the mine.

The Nasdaq Stock Market announced Thursday that trading volume on ETFs reached a new record in September with an average daily trading volume of 785 million shares. That was part of a new record trading volume of 3.3 billion shares.

IndexUniverse says that ETFs now make up more than one-third of the U.S. market trading volume. They cite data from the National Stock Exchange , which says ETFs represented "a record 35% of all U.S. equity trading volume." That's up from 31% in August. Think about that: more than one-third of stock trades in America are for exchange traded funds.

Trim Tabs just came out with a report showing investors have been pulling money out of stock funds -- but throwing them into ETFs. Trim Tabs estimates investors took well over $40 billion out of all mutual funds in September, but meanwhile put about the same amount into ETFs. For the last 12 months, we've pulled $117 billion out of mutual funds and put $127 billion into ETFs.

For individual investors, the move makes sense. When the market is moving around like it has been, it's scary to be in a vehicle where you can only trade at the end of the day? But I can't imagine that all of that ETF volume isn't helping whip around the prices of the underlying shares.

This is part of a series of columns by retirement expert Dan Solin. Please bring him your questions in the comments box and he will answer as many as he can.

Is this a good time to invest, or should you sit on the sidelines until the market has "bottomed out"? This is the most common question I am asked.

It would be great if there was a way to tell when the market had reached its low. If you could do this, you would be able to buy stocks when the markets were taking off and retreat to risk-free investments, like cash and Treasury bills, in down markets.

Unfortunately, the data on timing the markets is very dismal.

One large study looked at more than 15,000 predictions by 237 market timing newsletters over a 12-year period. At the end of the period studied, 94.5% of the newsletters went bust. Not very impressive.

The financial media likes to hype stories suggesting that the markets are tanking or are poised for a rebound. These predictions are usually inaccurate and generally unreliable.

Here's a better question for you to consider: Should you be in the markets at all?

MarketWatch has an interesting article today about homebuilder and financial ETFs. The article, titled "Analysts say financial, builder ETFs signaling buy," interviews a couple of leading analysts who feel that both sectors have bottomed out and are "screaming buys."

Morningstar analyst Sonya Morris said that the Financial Select Sector SPDR (AMEX: XLF) is trading "at least 25% below what Morningstar thinks they are worth."

MarketWatch said in the same article, "Most of the analysts agree that valuations are attractive right now in the financial sector. They said that once the sector gets past the problems with the subprime crisis, probably by the end of this year, the shares could move fast."

I think these analysts are probably right, but that we're probably not through going down in the short term.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

After rising more or less in line with overall market volume for years, there has been a noticeable surge since the spring in the relative turnover of selected exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

For the SPDR Trust Series 1 ETF (AMEX: SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, the average daily volume (ADV) compared to New York Stock Exchange Composite ADV increased from 6.1% in April to 16.8% last month. For the PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ: QQQQ), which emulates the Nasdaq-100 index, the numbers went from 6.3% to 14.1%. For the iShares Russell 2000 Index Fund ETF (AMEX: IWM), which mirrors the small cap benchmark, relative turnover rose from 3.4% to 6.7%.

Although it's not clear whether the activity was related to hedging or outright position-taking -- or both -- the sharp increase in activity suggests that there has been an important change in the underlying dynamic of the U.S. equity market. If so, it raises some interesting questions.

Could this be a sign, for example, that the influence of hedge funds, proprietary trading desks, and other speculative operators is expanding dramatically? Are investors of all stripes becoming increasingly focused on ETFs as an investing vehicle? Does this emphasis on trading bundles of shares mean that more individual issues are "mispriced"?

Whatever the case, this is a trend worth paying attention to.

Michael Panzner is a 25-year veteran of the global stock, bond, and currency markets and the author of Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes and The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle.

The Wall Street Journal reports that PowerShares Capital Management LLC (subscription required) has "filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for three new exchange-traded funds that will hold different combinations of other PowerShares stock and bond ETFs."

Here's why this is good for small investors: ETFs with their low expense ratios are a great product, and diversified portfolios of ETFs allow small investors to put together retirement portfolios easily, without the help of an expensive financial adviser.

But there's a problem: If you have a portfolio of $5,000 and divide it up among ten funds and have to pay a commission of $10 per trade, that works out to a front-load of 2% -- then another 2% when you sell. Unless you have a fairly sizable chunk of money to invest, buying multiple ETFs isn't very cost savvy.

Funds of ETFs will be a practical option for a lot of retail investors and could take market share from two groups that deserve to lose market share: financial advisers and big mutual fund companies.

This article is part of a 20 article special report on "Metals, miners and money".

The SPDR S&P Metals & Mining (AMEX: XME), "a play on hard assets, has delivered impressive gains of 52% over the past 12 months," notes Paul Tracy who has added the ETF to the Sector Trading Portfolio of The ETF Authority.

The advisor explains, "While investors shouldn't grow accustomed to red-hot annual gains of 50%, this ETF is an ideal way to gain exposure to this sector." Here is his review.

"XME has been in the right place at the right time. The ETF mirrors the S&P Metals & Mining and invests in hard assets like precious metals (gold), industrial metals (copper, aluminum), steel, and coal.

"According to studies conducted by research firm Ibbotson, this group has a very low correlation with other traditional asset classes, and a modest stake can boost long-term returns with negligible additional risk -- and that has certainly been the case lately.

A chart comparing the S&P 500 index to the MSCI EAFE index (a global benchmark comprised of stocks from Europe, Australia, and the Far East, which has an equivalent exchange-traded fund, or ETF (NYSE: EFA) ) points to a potentially significant shift in the relationship between U.S. and foreign equities.

That is, U.S. shares appear poised for a comeback, at least in relative terms.

Interestingly, this comes at a time when the world at large appears to be suffering from the consequences of a bursting U.S. housing bubble and a meltdown in the American subprime finance sector.

While it is too soon to say for sure, could this be a sign that U.S. investors are beginning to repatriate funds back home? Or that foreigners are reverting to past form with a knee-jerk move towards what has historically been seen as safer shores?

If so, foreign share markets may well suffer disproportionately in the wake of further unwelcome announcements and upheaval in global financial markets.

Some might say that's an ironic turn of events.

Michael Panzner is a 25-year veteran of the global stock, bond, and currency markets and the author of Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes and The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle.

As exchange traded funds explode in popularity, investors are having a harder time finding bargains. According to Marketwatch, "In March, shares of closed-end funds covered by Lipper traded at a median discount of 2.34% to net asset value, the lowest level in 12 months. That level marked a 0.86 percentage-point decline from the end of February. During the one-year period ended March 31, the combined discount on closed-end funds declined by 4.29 percentage points."

However, the discount on exchange-traded bond funds has narrowed, meaning that many investors are looking for yield rather than capital appreciation right now. Investors should be careful about investing in ETFs for income, and evaluate them the same way you would evaluate a dividend-paying stock: Is the yield sustainable (What is the payout ratio? How will the payout be taxed?)

In many cases, I think some of the online high-yield savings accounts are the best bet for conservative income investing. They are safe, accessible, and provide yields of 5% and higher. Try ING Direct or Emigrant Direct.