Sprott Physical Silver Trust, $5.93, symbol PHS.U on Toronto (Units outstanding: 127.4 million; Market cap: $755.4 million; www.sprottphysicalbullion.com), holds substantially all of its assets in physical silver bullion. The trust aims to provide an alternative for investors who want to hold physical silver bullion without the inconvenience—transport, storage and insurance. The trust does not speculate with regard to short-term changes in silver prices. At the same time, unitholders who hold certain minimum dollar amounts of the trust can redeem their units for physical silver bullion on a monthly basis. The trust’s MER is 0.65%....

Energy Fuels Inc., $3.26, symbol EFR on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 45.3 million; Market cap: $147.6 million; www.energyfuels.com), operates two uranium processing facilities—the White Mesa Mill in Utah and the Nichols Ranch Processing Facility in Wyoming. Both supply uranium oxide (U3O8) in concentrates to major nuclear utilities. The White Mesa Mill has a capacity of over 8 million pounds of uranium oxide per year. The Nichols Ranch Processing Facility, acquired in the company’s purchase of Uranerz Energy Corporation in June 2015, has capacity of 2 million pounds of U3O8 per year. Energy Fuels also has uranium mining projects located in a number of western U.S. states, including small producing mines, mines on standby, and mineral properties in various stages of permitting and development....

Blackstone Group LP, $26.06, symbol BX on New York (Shares outstanding: 558.4 million; Market cap: $16.0 billion; www.blackstone.com), is a global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services. The company’s alternative asset management businesses include managing corporate private equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt funds and closed-end mutual funds. Mezzanine financing is a mixture of debt and equity financing that private companies use to fund expansion. Mezzanine debt gives the lender the right to convert the debt to equity if the borrower defaults. It typically entails less due diligence by the lender, and the borrower puts up little or no collateral....

Global X Social Media ETF, $16.63, symbol SOCL on Nasdaq (Units outstanding: 4.1 million; Market cap: $68.2 million; www.globalxfunds.com), invests in companies that provide social networking, file sharing and other web-based media applications. This exchange traded fund holds 36 social media stocks. U.S. social media stocks make up 49% of assets. China is next with 28%; Japan, 12%; Russia, 7%; Ireland, 2%; Taiwan, 2%; and Germany, 1%. The fund’s MER is 0.65%. It began trading as a new issue on November 14, 2011....

BMO Europe High Dividend Covered Call Hedged to CAD ETF, $18.34, symbol ZWE on Toronto (Units outstanding: 2.5 million; Market cap: $45.9 million; www.etfs.bmo.com), holds mostly high-quality European stocks. These include BP plc, Swiss Re AG, HSBC Holdings plc, Total SA, Teliasonera AG, Allianz SE and Nordea Bank AB. The ETF is reasonably well balanced across the five economic sectors. It’s also focused on the more stable European countries, with 23.1% of its assets in Switzerland, 18.4% in France, 15.8% in Germany, 15.0% in Sweden, 12.3% in the Netherlands and 10.1% in the U.K. In general, a substantial portion of the ETF’s portfolio hedges the movement of the Canadian dollar against the euro, Swiss franc, British pound and so on. That guards against the upward movement of the Canadian dollar compared to those foreign currencies. But if they rise while your investment is hedged, any gain you’d otherwise enjoy will be reduced....

ING Group NV (ADR), $11.70, symbol ING on New York (ADRs outstanding: 3.9 billion; Market cap: $44.2 billion; www.ing.com), is a global financial institution that offers banking, insurance and asset management to approximately 75 million clients in Europe, the U.S., Latin America, Asia and Australia. The bank is in the final stages of selling off its insurance businesses. This is part of a broad restructuring effort that ING began after it received a Dutch government bailout during the 2008 financial crisis. Last year, ING sold its remaining shares in U.S. insurer Voya Financial. It still has a stake of around 14% in Dutch insurer NN Group NV. ING’s outlook is positive, especially in its core Dutch market. The Dutch economy is improving following a lengthy crisis in 2012 and 2013—the housing market is up and disposable incomes are rising....

In the early 1970s, word began circulating in Toronto about a local character who had begun appearing in the Toronto subway system, belting out Elvis Presley songs without any instrumental accompaniment. Early on, somebody christened him “Subway Elvis,” and the name stuck. It was several years before I learned his real name, Mike McTaggart. By then, he had graduated to paid engagements in Toronto bars and clubs. Subway Elvis developed a following, but nobody expected him to equal the experience you’d get from a performance by the real Elvis. Some performers can fill a local tavern, and others can fill a sports stadium. The fans know the difference. Elvis-level success is a unique phenomenon. Of course, that’s true of any significant achievement. Your identical twin could not duplicate your success, even with a lifetime of trying. The raw material needed for achievement goes far beyond genetics. It also demands determination, the right mindset, and a great deal of favourable circumstances—being in the right place at the right time to learn what you need to learn and meet the people you need to meet....

The Direxion iBillionaire Index ETF, $21.51, symbol IBLN on New York (Units outstanding: 1.4 million; Market cap: $30.1 million; www.direxioninvestments.com), is designed to profit from copying the moves of billionaire investors such as Warren Buffett, Carl Icahn, Daniel Loeb and David Tepper.

The ETF began trading on August 1, 2014. Its MER is 0.65%—lower than most mutual funds, but high for an ETF.

The Direxion iBillionaire Index ETF selects up to 10 billionaire investors from a pool of 50, based on their personal net worth, source of wealth, stock turnover and performance over time. It then selects stocks from their investment firms or hedge funds.

Each of the companies in the index is equally weighted (3.33% each) and rebalanced quarterly. That’s because the ETF’s managers aim to ensure that each stock’s contribution to the fund’s performance is identical.

The fund’s managers select stocks by looking at Form 13F, a publicly available document that institutions, such as banks, hedge funds and investment firms, must file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Form 13F discloses long positions, or stocks held with the intention of profiting if their prices go up.

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Dream Global REIT (formerly Dundee International REIT), $7.65, symbol DRG.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 113.0 million; Market cap: $885.0 million; www.dream.ca/global), is a Canadian real estate investment trust that focuses on investing outside the country. It aims to grow by acquiring different types of properties in certain European countries, starting with Germany.

The REIT first sold units to the public in August 2011. Initially, it sold 27 million units for $10 each to raise $270 million. It raised a further $140 million in an issue of debentures.

The trust used the total proceeds of $410 million to help buy a $1-billion portfolio of properties in Germany from Deutsche Post, Europe’s largest postal company. These buildings are located in major cities and towns, often on a central square near the main train or bus station. Deutsche Post now leases back much of the space.

In the first nine months of 2015, Dream Global sold a 50% stake in eight properties to a joint venture partner. It also sold 100% of 54 other properties.

As of September 30, 2015, it owned 214 commercial properties that contain a total of 13.2 million square feet, all in Germany. These buildings had an 86.8% occupancy rate.

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SolarWindow Technologies, $3.18, symbol WNDW on the U.S. over-the-counter bulletin board (Shares outstanding: 26.9 million; Market cap: $84.9 million; www.solarwindow.com), believes it has developed a commercially viable method for spraying see-through electricity-generating solar cell coatings onto glass surfaces.

The company says it has successfully scaled up its technology from a single solar cell—only one-quarter the size of a grain of rice—to a working array of solar cells that form a one-foot-by-one-foot working prototype.

To date, SolarWindow has reported no revenue, and it used up $595,189 of cash in the three months ended November 30, 2015. Of that, it spent $441,694 on promotion and administration and $148,922 on research. As of November 30, 2015, the company held cash of just $169,057 and had $3.4 million of long-term debt (owed to shareholders in the company and mostly convertible into common shares).

SolarWindow faces many major challenges. For one, it’s far from certain whether it will be able to develop a commercial version of its spray-on technology; thin-film solar technology, and its variations, have eluded major solar power companies around the world.

As well, SolarWindow has just five employees right now, and it must find either a way to raise the funds it needs to keep operating or a major partner to buy the technology it has produced so far. Above all, it needs a great deal of growth to justify its current market capitalization of $84.9 million or anything higher.

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