Following August 1997, the height of the emerging markets boom, there will again come a time when emerging markets will attract the same manic attention of foreign investors.

I’ve just returned from a fascinating — and sobering — weekend in Estonia. If you’re like most Americans, you may not know that Estonia is one of the three Baltic States that until 1991 were part of the Soviet Union.

Russia is the market that investors love to hate. With Russian President Vladimir Putin annexing Crimea at his whim — and lining tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine’s border as a thinly veiled threat for a future invasion of Ukraine — chances are you feel the same way.

I believe that, because of its size, Berkshire has morphed into a surrogate for the S&P 500. If you invest in Berkshire, you can expect to generate S&P 500-like returns.

I don’t think Warren Buffett would be willing to bet that Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) would outperform a U.S. small-cap index over the next 10 years.

The idea of having an index-linked, mainstream market-beating strategy that does not rely on the brilliance of a Warren Buffett or a Carl Icahn — all for the relatively low fees of an ETF — has to be one the best deals in the world of investment.

I monitor 44 global stock markets on a daily basis; doing so allows me to shift money into the best-performing markets in the world — no matter where they may be.

Despite their reputation for their investment prowess, hedge funds haven’t exactly set the financial world on fire over the past five years.

For all of the hand wringing about the weak start to the stock market this year, initial public offerings (IPOs) haven’t been this hot since 1999.

A handful of income-generating investments — through a combination of income and capital gains — have already generated big gains barely a month and a half into the volatile New Year.

With the U.S. economy showing strength and Europe back from the precipice of collapse, today’s doom-and-gloom crowd has shifted its attention to that old standby, emerging markets.

The “Big Mac Index” provides a tongue-in-cheek but surprisingly useful way of measuring purchasing power parity, the relative over and undervaluation of the world’s currencies compared to the U.S. dollar.

In a world where “can’t-lose” investment themes get tossed out with remarkable regularity, the “small-cap effect” is one of the few that has stood the test of time.

For hedge fund managers raised on the mother’s milk of diversification and trend following, 2013 was one of the worst years on record, compared to simple “long-only” strategies.

When I try to divine short-term market movements, I have a distinct weakness for this fuzzy thing called “market sentiment.”

This column from January 2009 seems particularly relevant today, given the botched Obamacare rollout.

It has been all doom and gloom for emerging markets. Despite this, I am going to stick to my long-term prediction that emerging markets are overdue for a monster rally.

The only prediction I’ll be making for 2014 is one that I know will be 100% accurate.

That permabears were wrong is, of course, good news — unless you invested your money with these folks. But here is why I’m worried for the rest of us.

After getting pummeled more than most in the market meltdown of 2008, private-equity investing is back in vogue. You can invest in the firms that run these funds.