Meeting global energy demand will be a key challenge in the decades ahead but it should also create opportunities for investors.In this article we will discuss how you could benefit from some of the long-term trends in the power generation market through both funds and individual stocks.Global energy demand will rise by at least 30% until 2040, according to investment bank UBS.The need to...

The market volatility caused by Britain's decision to leave the EU has resulted in investors flocking to so-called 'safe haven' investments.Assets like cash, gold and government bonds can be a useful way of counteracting the inherently risky nature of shares, but panic-selling your equities could be detrimental in the long-term.What are safe-haven investments?CashThe ultimate safe-haven...

Globally important events like the economic slowdown in China or an interest rate decision in the US can move share prices right around the world, but there are lots of other factors that have a much more limited impact and will only affect the local stock market.Those who invest internationally can take advantage of the opportunities that the global news flow creates, whilst reducing their...

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are moving into the mainstream. According to the latest data from specialist consultant ETFGI, assets in the wider exchange-traded products (ETPs) space hit a new record of $2.99 trillion at the end of April - just short of the $3 trillion milestone.The popularity of the low-cost tracking product means ETP flows can offer an indication of what the market is...

The markets generate an endless supply of short-term trading opportunities, but the price movements tend to be too small to take advantage of using traditional investments. Those with the experience to exploit these sorts of openings will usually need some form of leverage.There are several different types of leveraged products available and they will all magnify the movement in the market....

The trend of minor peaks and troughs which has developed on the chart of ETFS All-Commodities DJ-UBSCI (AIGC) since the beginning of the year augers well for continued strength in the board commodities benchmark. I expect the index to recapture 2011's peak of $18.37.So far the exchange-traded product (ETP) has shied away from scaling evident resistance close to $14.40, but such a test should...

In his latest missive to shareholders in his Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A:NYSE) vehicle Warren Buffett explains he has instructed the trustee of his estate to put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund. It is hard to imagine a more ringing endorsement for passive instruments and when it comes to cost it is very difficult to beat exchange-traded...

ETFS Copper (COPA)BUY $34.26TARGET $40.66STOP LOSS $32.50One of the great psychological challenges that faces any market participant is to admit you may have got something wrong and charts are a great way of taking the emotion out of such a situation. In spring (see Chartist, Shares 25 Apr) I adopted a bearish stance on copper via an exchange-traded product (ETP) but the technicals have...

Analysis from specialist exchange-traded product (ETP) provider Boost ETP suggests the usual advice to 'sell in May and go away...' will not cut short the rally in equities this year. Instead, it notes a recovery in the US economy could see money move out of dollar-denominated commodities and into 'attractively valued' stocks.The old market adage 'sell in May and go away, come back on St Leger...

Dramatic growth in the exchange-traded fund market since the launch in 2000 of iShares FTSE 100 (ISF), the UK's very first such product, suggests investors are becoming ever more comfortable with these powerful portfolio building blocks.In the first year of the new millennium there were just 1,972 ETF deals struck on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a value of £403 million. In January...

In December, exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider db X-trackers launched its first mainstream ETFs which use physical or direct replication to achieve the performance of their benchmark.Previously db X-trackers had almost exclusively used synthetic, or swap-based replication to track the markets underlying their respective instruments. Is the decision to offer investors this choice...

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are already huge in the USA, where retail punters are already fully aware of how these cost-effective instruments offer exposure to a broad array of asset classes, markets and geographies. Yet in the UK, trading in ETFs remains largely the preserve of fund managers, not least because Independent Financial Advisers do not push them to any great degree, owing to the...