Offshore Investing Emerging-markets funds are the most volatile, invested as they are in undeveloped regions subject to political upheaval, currency risk and corruption. These economies, such as Argentina's in 2002, can collapse; governments can fall or be overthrown. On the other hand, these regions have enormous growth potential. Adding a small sprinkling of emerging markets exposure to your portfolio could serve to lessen downturns in U.S. markets – but they are for long-term investors only, those who can wait for fallen markets to recover. [More] Making the Market Markets are composed of players of all sizes (including you and me!), the largest of whom are 'Market Makers'; firms who have an obligation to quote a price on particular securities whatever the overall market is doing. Brave of them, I hear you think - imagine having to buy Enron as it plummeted. Surely they ended up with most of that worthless stock in their own portfolios? Er, no. So where did it go then? Patience, little investor. [More] Playing the High-Stakes Biotech Game Last year Biogen and Idec, merged to form Biogen Idec. The Biogen Idec merger was driven by the need to reduce risks, derive scale advantages, and enhance domain expertise. This year, Amgen (Nadsaq: AMGN) has announced its intent to buy 79% of Tularik (Nasdaq: TLRK) it does not already own. Tularik shores up Amgen's pipeline by bringing in five products in various stages of clinical testing with T67, the liver cancer drug, in Phase III trials. Recently, QLT (Nasdaq: QLTI) and Atrix (Nasdaq: ATRX) have agreed to merge to move closer to becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. [More] Interview with Stuart of the Your Money 2 Keep Blog This is the 19th in a series of interviews HelpYourMoney.com is doing of other personal finance bloggers. An Interview with Stuart of the Your Money 2 Keep Blog: 1. First, can you please introduce yourself and tell us why your started your personal finance blog? From the time I was 17 I became interested in money and business. [...]. John McCabe's Web Guides: Is a 1031 Exchange For You? Is a 1031 Exchange For You? If you invest in real estate, I'm guessing you want to grow your wealth as much and as fast as possible. One of the things holding you back is taxes. 1031 exchanges provide a loophole you can use to accelerate your wealth building... On the PlayStation 3 Delay As a result of problems related to the mass production of a key component of its Blu-ray DVD player, Sony (SNE) will delay the European launch of its next generation video game console, the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Sony will also reduce the number of PS3 units immediately available in both the U.S. and Japan. In the U.S., the PS3 wi.