There's an apt story in business: There's always room for one more. Take McDonalds (MCD) and Burger King (BKC) for example. Burger King competes directly with McDonalds.

The same is true in the exchange-traded fund (ETF) craze. There is already an ETF that tracks smartphones: the NASDAQ OMX CEA Smartphone Index (QFON). But like Burger King, we have a brand new ETF that tracks smartphones and other major holdings: the First Trust NASDAQ CEA Smartphone Index Fund (FONE).

There's a catch-22 in world food supply and demand. The demand for food from developing nations is putting pressure on supplies across the globe. But governments are getting increasingly nervous and worried about unrest. To try and preempt civil disturbances, governments have stepped in and are buying food staples. This government buying is driving prices still higher.

Algeria and Saudi Arabia have announced extraordinary purchases of wheat, driving prices to a two and a half year high. Last week Algeria bought 600,000 tons of wheat, much more than usual. Saudi Arabia announced plans to double the size of its wheat stockpile.

Proshares UltraShort Barc 20 Year Treasury ETF (TBT) closed up 3% on a weak five-year auction. Wednesday is the seven-year auction. February 39 and 40 calls are active on total call volume of 31K contracts, 12K puts. January put option implied volatility is at 31, February is at 33; compared to its 26-week average of 34, according to Track Data. Active call volume suggests investors could either be putting on outright bullish positions or hedging short underlying shares.

AIG (AIG) is trading near a 28-month high. January 60 and 62 calls are active on more total call volume of 33K contracts compared to 15K puts. January call option implied volatility is at 48, February is at 49, May is at 45; compared to its 26-week average of 45, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

In earlier days, the commodities markets were dominated by large trading houses and a small percentage of speculators. The trading houses used the markets to buy and sell their products and hedge their risks.

Now the world of commodities is completely different . Hedge funds, pension funds and mutual funds are a growing force in market participation. This year alone, contracts held by investors rose by 12% through October and are 17% higher than June 2008, as reported by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The scramble is on. Investors are racing to move money from riskier, higher-yielding trades to more conservative investments. And just like we saw during the financial crisis of 2008, U.S. Treasuries seem to be the conservative investment of choice.

This flight to safety and increased demand for U.S. Treasuries is pushing prices higher, but you need to make sure you are investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that provide exposure to Treasuries with longer-term maturities if you want to take advantage of the boom.

As a massive oil spill reaches the Louisiana coast, many environmentalists are quick to point out that this oil spill should eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster.

The White House has even noted that this spill is "a leak of national significance," demanding that no additional drilling take place until the investigation into the oil spill is complete. David Axelrod, White House senior adviser, noted that the president "said he is not going to continue the moratorium on drilling but ... no additional drilling has been authorized and none will until we find out what happened here and whether there was something unique and preventable here." The "here" in the quote refers to the current oil spill.

Air travel continues in a state of flux thanks to a "huge cloud of ash" emanating from an Iceland volcanic eruption. In fact, this cloud of ash has covered half of Europe and caused the "largest disruption of air travel since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

After 6,000 flights were grounded yesterday, 17,000 are expected to remain on the tarmac today. What is the problem? Volcanic ash can block engines and cause them to fail. The problem isn't only in Europe, it has forced the cancellation of half of all trans-Atlantic flights. With thousands of air travelers stranded across the globe and no end in sight, is this another black eye for air carriers?

"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.

Most investors got slammed last year, down 50% or more in their investments. Didn't matter if they owned stocks or real estate, they got hammered. Many have to start over. And if they're near retirement, it's scary. Years of patient investing wiped out, gains that were made over a long time disappeared frighteningly fast.

But now it's time to begin fresh, to rebuild. What's the safest way to regain some or all of the losses without suffering another wipeout?

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!

This post is part of a series in which TheStockAdvisors.com asked financial experts to name their top stock pick if McCain or if Obama wins the election.

"Go nuclear if McCain wins," says mutual fund and ETF expert Doug Fabian. Here, in his Successful Investing newsletter, the advisor looks at the Market Vectors Nuclear Energy (NYSE: NLR), an exchange-traded fund that focuses on the sector.

"What is likely to happen if McCain wins the White House? Well, based on what he has said so far in the campaign, I think we can make the following assumptions about the sectors most likely to thrive.

"When it comes to energy, we already have seen that McCain is a big fan of oil drilling. It is thus not a stretch to think that oil services and oil drilling firms are likely to thrive if the Republican takes power.

"McCain's other energy focus is nuclear, and that's good news for companies doing the yeomen work in the space. Once again, when it comes to getting invested in the best companies in a specific market sector, ETFs continue to be our best friends.

"The Market Vectors Nuclear Energy ETF is a fund designed to give investors exposure to the best companies in the nuclear energy sector.

According to The Wall Street Journal's Weekend Edition, investors are in for a treat:

A potentially cutthroat price war is shaping up between two of the biggest firms in the exchange-traded-fund business.

In coming weeks, Vanguard Group plans to roll out an ETF designed to directly undercut one of the biggest products on the market, from rival Barclays Global Investors, a unit of Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS).

Vanguard is launching the Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF to track the MSCI EAFE index, which provides investors with broad exposure to developed-market equities.

The fund and its obscenely low 0.15% expense ratio take direct aim at Barclays' iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, which has an expense ratio of 0.35%.

Given that low expenses are perhaps the single greatest predictor of a fund's performance, this is awesome news for investors. Baseball speedsters like Kenny Lofton and Carl Crawford are often seen as reliable because it is said that "speed never goes into a slump." A power hitter like Barry Bonds or David Ortiz might lose his home run stroke for a while, but base-stealers can always run when healthy.

Low-expense funds are the Rickey Hendersons of personal finance, and as expense ratios continue their descent, investors will reap the rewards, although the profits of fund managers may decline.

This week's issue of Barron's [subscription required] takes an interesting look at Exchange-traded funds, and their growing prominence. According to the piece, "A survey by Schwab Institutional [...] taken in January, covered nearly 1,400 advisers representing $347 billion in assets under management, and found that 76% of them currently use ETFs in client portfolios. No other instrument had a higher usage rate. Fully 36% said they expected to increase their ETF use, and one in five advisers who don't yet use them expected to begin doing so."

It's great to see advisers increasing the use of ETFs. ETFs often have lower expense ratios than mutual funds, partly because the vast majority are passively managed index funds. A shift to ETFs in all likelihood means a shift away from actively-managed funds, and as reams of data show, that is great news for investors.

However, as always, I think investors can do better with ETFs without a financial advisor. ETFs generally are tax efficient and have low expenses, but adding the expense of a financial advisor can make those fees look a lot more expensive. Active trading tends to eliminate their tax advantages.