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Ever since the start of 2017, the dollar has been in an almost constant decline.

In fact, the PowerShares DB U.S. Dollar Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP) has dropped over 12% from its 2017 highs, despite a 2% gain.

UUP is an exchange-traded fund that measures the dollar against six other currencies. When the dollar strengthens relative to the others, the price of UUP goes up.

Generally, the dollar is seen as a safe haven, somewhere for investors to put their money in times of market uncertainty. And since we have seen a market that went straight up over a 15-month period, there was less demand for safety assets like the dollar.

But that can only last so long. Right now, there is a fear of inflation in the markets due to higher employment and wages.

When the economy is strong, inflation usually follows. That’s because when people make more money, they spend more. And when more money is spent, there’s more in circulation, and the excess supply makes each dollar less valuable.

However, inflation fears are likely overblown due to the fact that we haven’t seen an economy this strong since before the financial crash.

When inflation gets too high, it sends production costs up and business slows. But right now, inflation remains steady around 2%.

That may seem high, as it was around 0% for all of 2015 and some of 2016, but in the big picture, it’s normal. In fact, it’s seen as healthy.

As a reference, inflation had gotten over 4% in 2005 and 2006, right as the economy showed signs of slowing.

Many are wondering how to profit from this analysis.

Demand for the Dollar

The dollar could easily get stronger from here as well.

Right now, a huge part of the world’s economy has extremely low interest rates. Much of Europe, for example, is under 1%, and they aren’t planning on raising rates aggressively anytime soon.

The United States, however, has a rate of 1.5%. This isn’t high, but we could easily see that go over 2% this year if the economy stays healthy.

That would also increase the rate of government bonds, which is 2.86% right now. As the rate get higher, international investors will begin to buy more U.S. bonds, which increases demand for the dollar and sends its value up.

How to Profit

Even though the only way to directly invest in the strength of the dollar is through UUP, there are other ways with higher return potential.

One is buying call options on the UUP fund, but that’s much riskier, as you could lose your whole investment.

Another way would be buying a leveraged ETF against a different currency.

For example, the VelocityShares Daily 4X Long USD vs. EUR ETF (NYSE: DEUR)returns four times the percentage that the dollar appreciates against the euro.

There are also similar funds that produce the return of the dollar against other currencies, like the pound (NYSE: DGBP), the yen (NYSE: DJPY) and the Australian dollar (NYSE: DAUD).

Index Services are dominating the investment markets from quite a long time by now. People who have the preference for diversity when it comes to investment are venturing towards the Thematic Investing. Here is the highlight on the significance of thematic investing.

It is an intuitive investing

This implies that instead of venturing into something unknown you can invest your hard earned money into the ideas as well as the trends that you are fully familiar with and the ones that you find exciting. Having a good knowledge about the same can provide you the capability of making the smart investment choice. As you go in for researching on your own this further makes your position comparatively strong. It further enhances your ability so as to customize your portfolio. You can invest in areas that interest you such as real estate, travel and healthcare.

You can align your values

Here you get the opportunity to be able to align the values that you think are important for you when it comes to your investment. You can simply invest in areas for which you hold the passion or the ones that are primarily focused on the social responsibility. You can simply make the world a better place to live with the help of your investment.

You have a vast choice

There are companies that give you the portfolio well prepared in advance if you so desire. On the contrary, you have the option to create a portfolio for yourself. There is a plethora of option of mutual funds that are available to you as an investor.

Helps to generate alpha

Thematic investing is the best way to get the opportunity for to generate alpha. By imply focusing you’re your investments in the hot spots where you can distribute the sizeable amount of your capital, you can easily generate the alpha. By simply analysing the other portfolios you can come at a decision for yourself.

Gives you flexibility and transparency

By simply creating your own portfolios you open up the gateways to great opportunities. Being able to customize your portfolio is a great advantage in itself. All that you need is to have a great visibility as well as control in addition to the transparency with no hidden cost. You get the clarity of your fractional share as well as the penny.

It is easy to access

Gone are the days when only a limited number of people had an access to the thematic investing due to the fact that the portfolio structures were not only expensive but at the same time restrictive as well as complex that consumed a lot of time for their maintenance. Most of these were available to high net worth investors. Today such is not the case as it has gained popularity, and become accessible for investors f all the brackets.

All in all, this is the significance of thematic investing. If you have still not explored the boundaries of the same, the it is high times for you to do the same.

While Donal Trump says “Trade wars are good, and easy to win,” history suggests otherwise. In March 2002, George Bush gave into lobbyists and slapped on steel tariffs of between 8% and 30% on imported steel. At that time, Bush exempted Canada, and Mexico because of NAFTA, plus a few developing countries.

Immediately after those tariffs were applied, the S&P 500 dropped over 33% over the next seven months.

Trump is demonstrating that he is no more astute than Bush was, assuming that a trade war is a ‘good thing’. Every time a country applies protectionist policies, other countries do the same, and the losers are the consumers who end up paying more for the finished products.

Governments always react, never fully understanding the end result. Trying to protect an inefficient industry in your country by applying tariffs against a more productive country does not make the domestic industry more efficient, it just makes the finished products more expensive for your consumers. Tariffs are designed to raise the cost of imported goods. They are nothing more than a tax, and in this case, a tax to be paid by US consumers.

So sure, Trump may succumb to steel lobbyist in the US and apply these tariffs to save 143,000 jobs in the steel industry, but these tariffs will hurt over 6 million other workers in industries like the auto industry that use steel to manufacture their products. The end result is the finished products that use steel or aluminum are going to cost more for consumers. So how is this a ‘good thing?’

For US companies that use steel and aluminum, not only will their costs go up, they will be less competitive, and their exports will suffer. And then of course we will have the problem of reciprocal tariffs that have already been threatened by countries being hit by Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. The European Union and Canada have already stated that they will retaliate.

Currencies play a huge role in the cost of imported products. Canada is the biggest exporter of steel to the US. The $CAN is currently trading at 77.50 against the $US, meaning all other things being equal, steel priced in $CAN will be 22.5% cheaper than steel priced in the $US.

While these tariffs may help the bottom line for American steel companies, the real losers will be the US consumers. If this turns into a full- on trade war, there will be many more casualties globally, including investors.