With fears of a market sell-off growing, you can survive a downturn if you know the best investments to make now.
For example, one way savvy investors navigate through volatile markets is by buying inverse funds.
Inverse funds enable you to make money when markets fall, while lowering your risk and protecting the value of your investments in the long run by smoothing out volatility.
Here are some of the best investments to make when the market's about to slide.
A year ago, I asked each of our experts here at Money Map Press to recommend their best investment ideas for the 12 months to come.
Of the five stocks our experts recommended in "The Five Stocks You Have to Own in 2012," two more than doubled in price. And the biggest winner posted a peak gain of 153%.
A year later, here we are with a fresh set of recommendations for 2013. I talked to each of our in-house gurus - including Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald, gold-and-natural-resources expert Peter Krauth, high-tech maven Michael A. Robinson - and asked each for their single-best investment idea for the rest of this year.
Take a look...
Japanese Prime Minister Abe's recent success in talking the yen lower against other currencies has increased fears over "currency wars." Now investors are on the hunt for the best investments to profit from central bankers' "race to the bottom" in 2013.
As we've pointed out, the Japanese have done nothing overt to weaken the yen - yet. Markets were massively long the Japanese currency and, when Prime Minister Abe called for "unlimited easing" during the election campaign last year and in the run-up to selecting a new Bank of Japan governor, that was all traders needed to hear to begin selling their yen long bets and taking out short positions.
Abe's great success was in getting the market to do all of the heavy lifting for him.
In fact, Abe has been a little too successful. Minister of Finance Taro Aso told reporters in Tokyo on Friday that the yen had weakened too quickly, which prompted an immediate reversal in the currency markets.
Aso's comments came after remarks by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi Thursday raising concerns that the recent strength of the euro might derail the recovery just gathering momentum in Europe now.
Looking at the interplay of comments from Draghi and Aso last week, it is tempting to think that all of this commotion in the currency markets is being coordinated at the highest level of central banking.
But, with the exception of China, which has been quietly pushing the renminbi toward the lower end of its trading range, no one has done anything. It's all just talk.
In the financial markets, however, talk is a big industry. Talk gets people to put on trades and that is how bankers and brokers make money.
This leaves investors wondering the best currencies to invest in to profit from these fluctuating values, which is why Morgan Stanley developed a currency war basket trade.
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Four years after falling to 6,600, the Dow pushed back above 14,000 last week.
Judging from the mail I get every day from Money Morning readers, it's clear that investors are struggling with how to make sense of these markets. Worse, an overwhelming majority are now afraid that the rally will leave them behind.
So, what's an individual investor to do? Do you pile in with the rest of the "herd," or sit on the sidelines and risk getting left behind?
I put those questions to Chief Investment Strategist Keith Fitz-Gerald, and he made five simple points you've got to know...
