There are forecasts everywhere of better times ahead in terms of employment, retail, inflation, GDP. David Rosenberg is having none of it. He sees the market as heavily propped up by the Fed. This is his look forward for 2011.

The perennial star of the Agora Financial Forum held each year in Vancouver (click here), veteran stock broker Rick Rule came out strongly in defense of silver as a top pick for 2011 in an interview on King World News.

Asked whether silver shortages would continue he said: ‘I suspect it’s true. One of the things that happens at least in the near-term, shortages and the price rises that they cause ironically exacerbate shortages. Meaning that more people are attracted to speculations in silver as the price goes up. The price of course has gone up because of that attraction.

ETF buying

The Bottom Line
Continue to hold equities and related ETFs that have favourable seasonal characteristics, but prepare to take trading profits in selected sectors in early January.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones! The holidays are wonderful, and in a few days we have another one coming up — the start of a brand new year.

Now, please be sure you’re watching the year-end signals I gave you in my columns of Nove

t is sometimes difficult to know where to begin when deciding whether a stock is worth purchasing or not. Here are 7 questions that I think everyone should ask before buying a stock, as well as what I look for when answering the questions.