Russia: Pass Or Play?

Michael Johnston submits:The rapid rise of the ETF industry has caused the expanded the investment arsenal of millions significantly, bringing asset classes previously reserved for only the largest and most sophisticated investors within reach. This development is perhaps best demonstrated by the surge in popularity of exchange-traded commodity products.

By John R. Conway:In the stock market there are winners and losers. In a Utopian stock market it would be great to see every stock, ETF, mutual fund, and index fund rise, but this isn't always the case. The beginning of 2012 started off great for the market, but since the beginning of 2012 if investors had made an investment in the US Natural Gas Fund (UNG) investors are currently down 20% year to date.

By Tom Lydon: Canada’s stocks and its single-country exchange traded fund are trying to get back on track with the help of the key energy and mining sectors. The country reports gross domestic product later this week. The Toronto stock exchange started the week on the right foot. Energy and mining shares provided the push to help the S&P/TSX Composite rise 1.4% on Monday, after a healthy rise of 2.7% last week.

Tom Lydon submits: Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSEArca: RSX) recently crossed two major thresholds. Earlier this week, the exchange traded fund (ETF) set a new 52-week high as Russian stocks advanced.

The future of the U.K.’s 40-year-old oil and gas industry lies on a stretch of windswept bogland in the Shetland islands 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Scotland. Among those islands of 22,000 people living closer to Oslo than London, Total SA is spending US$5.1-billion to build a plant to process gas from undeveloped fields 125 miles away in the North Atlantic. On the same coastal inlet, a BP Plc facility will take petroleum from a 4.5 billion-pound project.

By CommodityHQ: By Daniela Pylypczak

By Ganaxi Small Cap Movers:Oslo-based Oslo Asset Management is a part of Norwegian investment management company Aker ASA that has over $3.5 billion in total assets, including $369 million in 13-F assets (in U.S.-exchange traded equity securities). Overall, the fund has returned 72.3% since start-up in 2005 to year-end in 2010, at a respectable long-term compounded annual return rate of 10.4% compared to returns on the S&P in the range of 2.5% over the same period.

By Scott Gibson:Oil and energy stocks are normally not on our radar screen at ETF Maximizer but President Obama's recent speech about manipulation in the oil markets peaked our interest and here's what we found.