One of my most painful memories as a kid was having my braces tightened.

The orthodontist would grip his pliers, clamp down on the metal wire cemented to my teeth, and crank.

I’m happy to have straight teeth today... but man did those things hurt.

And they were embarrassing too.…

Stephen’s note: Happy 4th of July from the whole team here at RiskHedge. Because markets are closed tomorrow, we’re doing something a little different. Below you’ll find an essay from RiskHedge Senior Analyst Justin Spittler. In it, he explains a unique way to profit from a disruptive megatrend that’s just…

There are 2,208 billionaires on earth, according to Forbes.

But only 3 are rich enough to qualify as “centi-billionaires”—worth $100 billion or more.

Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos is #1.

Microsoft founder (MSFT) Bill Gates is #2.

#3 will probably surprise you.

It’s not super-investor Warren Buffett. It’s not Facebook…

The US housing market is BOOMING.

This past month the number of Americans looking to buy a new house spiked to a three-year high...

Mortgage applications jumped 40%...

And Quicken Loans, the US’s largest mortgage lender, had its best month in 30- ears.

“The phone is ringing off the hook”…

Imagine how much money you’d make if half of all people on the planet were your customers...

There are about 7.5 billion people on earth.

On an average day, 3.8 billion internet searches are performed.

92% of those searches—or 3.5 billion—flow through Google (GOOG).

That’s the equivalent of more than…

What do an iPhone and Nike sneakers have in common?

Both are made by iconic American companies...

But both are made in China.

American goods used to be made in the good old US of A…

Then cheap labor transformed China into the “world’s factory.”

Today we get 80% of…

It’s always great to talk with RiskHedge readers face-to-face…

I met a handful of you at the Strategic Investment Conference in Dallas a couple weeks ago.

Although RiskHedge readers tend to be serious investors, most don’t invest for a living.

I met an airplane pilot… a doctor… an aerospace engineer.

For the first time ever, banks’ grip on money is slipping away...

Notorious stickup man Willy Sutton was once asked: “why rob banks?”

“Because that’s where the money is...” he said.

For pretty much all of America’s history, banks have held a monopoly on all things money.

Need a place…

Hello from downtown Dallas, Texas.

My team and I are on the road all week at a gathering of investment professionals. We’ve spent the past couple days chatting with insiders and taking notes. So today we’re doing something a little different...

Instead of the usual weekly essay, below you’ll find…

When was the last time you took a cab?

I mean a real yellow taxicab, with a light on the roof and a fare meter running.

I don’t even own a car, and I haven’t climbed into a cab in years.

That’s not because I never go anywhere. I travel…