Before we begin, I want to help a fellow blogger promote his new Value Investing Forum. Jonathan Goldberg is an MBA from the University of Western Ontario and has a value investing blog at JonathanGoldberg.com and hopes to inspire a community of investors to share ideas (much like my goal at TheCuriousInvestor. So, COMMENT!)

Without further ado, here are some articles which piqued my interest last week (or two).

• Chris Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics (via Jesse’s Cafe Americain) believes that Q4 will be a bloodbath for the banking industry.
• Dividend Growth Investor discusses the benefits of an emotionless sell policy. I absolutely agree. I’ve written a few posts on this topic myself:
  • Selling – All, Some or None
  • Devising a Sell Strategy
  • Be rational, be disciplined, and sell for a profit
• Ino.com presents a detailed technical analysis of Oil ETFs. (Full Disclosure: Curious Investor is an affiliate)
• I highly suggest this excerpt from Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book, Too Big to Fail. It’s a great inside look at what really went on as America’s banking industry was at the brink.
• Contingent Capital discusses an easy ratio for determining the health of banks.
• Naked Capitalism talks about the continuing shift away from denominating oil in US Dollars. Looks like Kevin Philips’ warnings in Bad Money may be coming true faster than we thought.

• thinks natural gas may be showing signs of life. Having written about natural gas in June and been way early to the party, I sure hope they’re right. Maybe my intuition will be vindicated.
• The Technical Indicator (Marketwatch.com Newsletter) wrote up a great analysis of U.S. stock market indices. While, at the time the article was written, bulls were mounting a gallant fight, it seems the S&P has finally lost the battle to defend the 1,044 support level.
• Bespoke Investment Group posts an eye opening graph detailing upward earnings revisions this year. If the best investors are fearful when others are greedy, then maybe we should be very fearful.
• Dividend Growth Investor notes that financials and other prominent large caps have begun considering increasing their dividends.
• Peridot Capitalist discusses his thoughts on the S&P’s current valuation.

Though it’s been happening for the last six months, the dollar’s weakening seems to have hit a head over last six months. Moreover, it seems that gold has directly offset the weakening dollar. Could this mean that, contrary to popular belief, investors are actually fleeing to the quality of gold as opposed to increasing their appetite for risk? Ken Phillips warned us in Bad Money that U.S. dollar supremacy could weaken if we don’t move to realign American political and economic interests, could it already be too late? Is gold poised to become the global reserve “currency”?

Thoughts on Gold from the Blogosphere

• INO.com presents a terrific video applying technical analysis on long term gold spot prices. This was posted Wednesday, and it seems they were on point in predicting gold’s breakout through $1,000/ounce by the end of the week.
• follows up last week’s post with an even stronger post illustrating their gold investment thesis.

Insight on the U.S. Economy

• John Robb of Global Guerrillas posts an interesting graph depicting the decline of the USSR and how it may also apply to the United States today.
• Bubble Meter believes unemployment may get worse before it gets better.
• Naked Capitalism follows up with an even more detailed analysis on “How Bad Unemployment Will Get“.

Investment Ideas

• Contrarian Profits believes a tradeable bounce in U.S. equities is on the way, but not before a pullback testing support.
• I actually managed to find something of value in Motley Fool’s torrent of daily postings – An analysis of the best stocks following the Great Depression. Could this help us?
• Brad Ferris of Triage Capital Management presents his methodology for determining value as well as a few stock picks.
• Vitaliy Katsenelson, author of Active Value Investing, writes a guest post on Zero Hedge outlining the value of disciplined investment process.
• I recently recommended Proctor & Gamble on this blog, it seems the Dividends Value agrees and has posted an enlightening analysis of management’s recent statements on P&G’s performance.

Market Commentary

• Bill Gross, bond-king at PIMCO, released his most recent commentary, “On the ‘course’ to a new normal.”
• Bespoke Investment Group publishes its analysis of US stock returns vs. foreign market indexes in local currency. It’s not pretty.
• The Economic Policy Institute believes unemployment is soaring to historical heights.
• Angry Bear takes a look at polling results which show that most Americans are in favor of progressive taxes.

Investment Ideas

• Market Folly reports that Peter Thiel and Paul Tudor Jones’ respective hedge funds are betting against a sustained recovery in US equities.
• Contrarian Profits believes REITs remain a dangerous asset class.
• Value Plays takes a short term and long term look at Sears.

Economic and Market Outlook

• Sean Maher of Dead Cats Bouncing reminds us that, despite a “stunning” rally in various equity markets, risks still loom large to a sustained global recovery.
• Doug Kass gives us his ten reasons for why the market rebound is premature.
• The Telegraph wonders if Ben Bernanke is the right man to lead us back to sustainable prosperity. Can he handle the “exit strategy” – shrinking the fed balance sheet, combat runaway inflation – with as much boldness as he did in attempting to stem the recession?
• Barry Ritholz of The Big Picture provides an analysis of market rebounds and corrections during a secular bear market.
• Bespoke Investment Group backs up the negative sentiment with its composite of monthly Dow Jones returns. Turns out, September is typically the worst month of the year for investors.

So, where should you put your money?!

• reminds everyone not to forget about gold.

• Jae Jun at Old School Value takes a look at Warren Buffet’s portfolio and gives a rundown of his valuation estimates.
• Market Folly digs into Harbinger Capital’s SEC filings and finds that they’ve begun accumulating natural resources exposure.
• Dividend Growth Investor takes a look at dipping back into financial stocks. You might be surprised at where he’s looking.
• The Dividend Guy (echoing my sentiment on retirement investing) focuses on asset allocation for risk management.

Other Articles of Interest

• In response to some comments on my post “Five Dividend Stocks for those that Missed the Rally“, I’ll refer to Dividend Tree‘s most recent article describing the value of both capital appreciation and dividends to investment return.
• Spurred by VC-cum-online celebrity Fred Wilson‘s post on “Books for Entrepreneurs,” check out this great wiki compiling must read books for entrepreneurs.

That’s all for this week, folks! Feel free to add your best links to the comments or contact me if you’d like to submit your article for next week/sponsor next week’s recap ala Pinnacle Digest in our August 16, 2009 post.