The best metaverse coins to buy in 2022 + MORE Apr 25th

Imagine going to a rock concert with thousands of people from around the world, checking out virtual houses or earning cryptocurrency by playing blockchain-based games. This, and a lot more, is possible in the metaverse.

But what is the metaverse? It’s a digital world that combines virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to create an immersive environment. Even though the metaverse is still in its infancy, it’s viewed by some—including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who’s rebranded the company as Meta—as the future of the internet.

Already, the metaverse offers opportunities for gaming, education, commerce, virtual real estate, social networks and entertainment, among other aspects. Unlike existing social networks, the metaverse is powered by blockchains, incorporates cryptocurrencies and provides users with ownership of their digital avatars and assets.

But is the metaverse just a passing fad? Time will tell, but banking giant Citi estimates that the metaverse could be an $8-trillion to $13-trillion market (all figures in U…

Now that it’s clear interest rates bottomed some time ago and are well on an upwards trajectory, we’re seeing headlines declaring the “death of bonds.” Notable was the Globe & Mail article by veteran columnist and author Gordon Pape, announcing he was “getting out of bonds.”

What to expect from bonds

Considering that Pape is well past the traditional retirement age of 65, that must have shocked many of his retired readers. But he warned in his April 5 article that there is still “much more pain ahead” for bond investors. He said all but two of 40 iShares bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) sold in Canada were in the red. Some were down 10% or more, like the iShares Core Canadian Long Term Bond Index ETF (XLB), down 11.8% from Jan. 1, 2022, to March 31, 2022. Even short-term bond ETFs, like Vanguard’s Short Term Bond Index ETF (VSB/TO), have suffered losses, albeit a modest 1% for 2021. If these were stock losses, he said, it could be called a crash.

In a similar vein were the pronouncements by financial planner Ed Rempel, who argues retirees should be out of bonds and ratchet up their personal risk tolerance to take on more stock exposure…

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