This Week on Stockhouse October 1 to 5

This week we proudly launched the new Stockhouse beta (http://beta.stockhouse.com/). We’re very proud of the new site with its new rating and ranking tools, improvements for networking and expanded charting capabilities, among other elements. We want everyone to take some time to look around, play with the new features, and give us suggestions or questions using our feedback form (http://beta.stockhouse.com/tools/?page=%2Ffeedback%2Easp).

Publisher and Executive Editor Darin Diehl announced the launch in his regular Publisher’s Notebook (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Community-News/2007/October/2/Publisher-s-Notebook–The-New-Stockhouse-is-Here! ) column, and highlighted the importance of our user community, and mentioned the site’s clean look and improved navigation.

The news flow from the community continued to address a wide range of important issues.

In a continuing series about how statistics can be used to manipulate a message to the public markets, littleguy123 wrote about the consumer confidence number (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Community-News/2007/October/1/Stockhouse-Community-News–U-S–economic-statistic ).

While Sigurd profiled a silver company (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Community-News/2007/October/1/Capstone-offers-healthy-silver-exposure ) he says carries some risk, and plenty of upside.

Many investors looking to cash in on the booming China economy have put funds into Chinese markets, but Gabrielgray warned his fellow users to move cautiously (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Community-News/2007/October/3/Risk-vs–reward-in-China).

While interest in zinc (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Community-News/2007/October/4/World-class-mining-company-in-the-making ) has dulled compared to the precious metals, David Zurbuchen and Ming Guo wrote that one company with a promising property in the Sierra Mojada mining district is worth a second look.

What does a high Canadian dollar mean for investors in Canada? Stacey Laliberte suggested that U.S. stocks are looking cheap (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Community-News/2007/October/4/Canadian-dollar-parties-like-it-s-1976 ) by comparison.

And from our regular columnists…

Danny Deadlock also looked at silver this week, profiling a company with a large land position (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/1/Microcap-Monday–Silver-Stock-Shines-Brightly ) in Durango State, Mexico.

The credit crisis is driving consumer price inflation, and will be the main driver of higher gold prices (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/1/Using-commodity-prices-as-an-inflation-calculator ), wrote Greg Silberman.

Greg McCoach agreed, saying all signs signal that gold is a buy (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/2/All-Signs-Point-to-BUY-GOLD ).

Steven Saville concurred, although he focussed on the commitment of trade (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/3/Gold-risks–the-COT-and-the-dollar ) dollars in gold to show that short-term declines would not be unexpected.

Sticking with gold and silver, Institutional Research Partners interviewed CEO Richard Hamelin of a gold and silver exploration company (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/2/Microcap-Spotlight–Production-will-make-UC-Resour ) with properties in Mexico and Canada.

Using a deflated energy play, Don Rodgers cautioned readers against guessing they know where market sentiment (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/2/Trading-Discipline–Market-sentiment-versus-market ) will go.

Septos Capital Management’s Jay Matulich said that the markets are in for a rocky ride (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/3/Cash-is-king! ), and pointed out that he thinks cash is king at the moment.

In the latest salvo in a series trumpeting warnings about a coming fiscal crisis, the Casey Files warned investors against thinking like the Wall Street crowd (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/5/Crisis–What-crisis- ).

Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to take off your shoes every time you took the kids to Disneyland or flew to your best client’s office for meetings? Totally Technology writers Leon Hamerling and J. Paul found an Israeli company with Homeland Security connections and a technology that could eliminate at least one headache of air travel (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/5/IDO-Security ).

If you read last week’s report on why to write your will, you’ll want to read about how to set up trusts (http://beta.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2007/October/5/The-advantages-of-trusts) in this week’s Financially Fit.