If you have a stock brokerage account, you might want to be careful of their advice. This is particularly important for those who use full service brokers to make their trades and developer their investment strategies. They may be able to help you find good stocks, so long as their interests line up with yours. Now when that doesn’t happen, you will get the short end of the stick.

Traditionally, Central Bankers control the fate of an economy by manipulating the money supply. When they lower short term interest rate targets, markets rise as liquidity floods the system, and when they raise short term interest rate targets, markets fall as liquidity tightens. Thus goes the typical monetary policy and economic cycle.

In 2008, the Fed lowered interest rates to near 0% in a desperate attempt to stave off another Great Depression and total economic collapse. When a Central Bank lowers rates that low, it essentially backs itself into a corner. If the economy does not respond to near 0% rates, what else can it do to stimulate economic growth and create demand? Enter Quantitative Easing.

One of the things that you want to watch as a trader or investor is the money supply. If you are a commodities trader or a money market trader, this will be especially important. It is a great indicator of inflation if you know how to read it correctly. It’s one of those macroeconomic things that most traders and investors don’t care to look too closely at. They just figure the financial press will make a big deal out of it if it’s enough to move the markets. If you think this way, you really shouldn’t. It’s an important concept to know in any kind of investment strategy you are developing.