November 19, 2009 Most commodities prices lower; gold manages another gain by Elaine Frei Crude oil prices fell Thursday as the US dollar strengthened and on declines in global equities markets. December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down $2.12 to $77.46 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange while, with December contracts expiring at the end of floor trade on Friday, January WTI contracts dropped $2.05 to $78.05 per barrel on Nymex. January Brent crude fell $2.29 to $77.18 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London

Stock tickers are a running list of trades made on the market. Each up and down movement in a stock is considered a ‘tick’. When the stock market information was transmitted over the telegraph, it was printed on ticker tape.

Put simply, deflation is a continued decrease in prices. In the United States, it is primarily measured using two economic indicators, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the GDP Deflator . The CPI reports on the changes in average prices paid by consumers for goods over a period of time

Arbitrage is an investing process that profits from the simultaneous buying and selling of stocks. It capitalizes on market inefficiencies, that is, minor discrepancies in the listed prices of stocks. Investors are able to buy a stock at one listed price and then immediately sell it at another listed price, making a profit on the difference

An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is an index fund that is traded on a major stock exchange. It consists of a diversified portfolio of stocks in various indexes, like a mutual fund, but it is traded throughout the day, like a stock. There are ETFs available in all of the major indexes: stocks, real estate, gold, and bonds.

Homeowners Insurance can be a very expensive, difficult expenditure, but it is still something that we must do in order to protect our property and our valuable possessions. Going without homeowners insurance is asking for big problems and will ultimately cost you a lot of money out of pocket down the road and could cause you to not be able to live in your own home due to damages that you can’t afford to fix. Helping to prevent burglary and other disasters that can cause a claim filed on your insurance policy is one way of keeping your insurance premium to a minimum.

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