Tiger Woods is without a doubt the most famous athlete of a generation, if not of all times. Again and again, Tiger has proved how marketable he is and for that exact reason, an almost endless list of corporations are lined up to associate their name with the pro golfer. And thanks to that, he can command very very high prices from his sponsors.

Woods, now 33 years old, has now reached the billion dollars fortune according to Forbes magazine, becomming the first pro athlete to ever reach such an achievement. This came in a year where he made over $100 million in sponsorships which is now the average he is expected to receive. Even such stars as Michael Jordan as well Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher never went beyond $70M in a year.

It is not quite clear what Tiger is doing with all of his money. He does have a foundation but he has been fairly secretive about what kind of investments he is making.  And at 33, it seems like there is almost no limit to what Tiger will be able to achieve in his career both on the golf course and in terms of earnings. He does hang out with other superstars such as Roger Federer but up until now, Tiger has been in a league of his own in terms of earnings. If even an athlete like Roger Federer, deemed the best of all time in his sport, is unable to even come close to Tiger’s achivements, it is difficult to imagine what kind of athlete would have the best shot.

Do you think other athletes will one day be able to surpass Tiger’s current records? Of course, with time, athletes have been getting better and better numbers but it is difficult to imagine an athlete that would be able to be big enough to generate as much interest from the corporate world.

You can see a nice slideshow that gives a breakdown of Tiger’s earnings here.

Good weekend everyone! An up and down week and commodities continue to show extreme volatility, here are some of the more interesting readings I enjoyed in the past week:

-Will Oil reach 100$ in 2009 or perhaps even earlier?
-Technical analysis of Baidu (BIDU)
-Inspirational article about charity on GLBL
-Travelling with credit cards rewards, how to do it without hassles over at Best Canadian Credit Card Finder.
-Very good article from MDJ about who should pay for dates
-TheDigitariLife has its opinion on the Dow at 10,000… it may not last!
-TFB shows how we are not exactly living the 2nd great depression
-In general, I’m opposed to market timing except for speculative investment, here are some pros and cons
-Hopefully not an article you will need, preparing for an emergency
-Is gold still a good investment, read a few arguments here

You may have heard about it, the Down Jones Industrial average, better known as the Dow, hit the high mark of 10,000 yesterday, a cause for celebration in trading rooms and living rooms across the world, or is it? When I mention in the title that the Dow Jones hitting 10,000 is so last century, it is not an exageration. Fact is, the index hit 10,000 in 1999.

So did we just lose 10 years of investing? Not quite. We actually learned a lot, lived through the tragic 9/11, the technology bubble, the more recent credit crisis and housing bubble. As well, many of the Dow components (30 stocks of large US companies) do pay dividends so the return is not exactly 0% in the past decade..although it’s not a whole lot better either.

I’ve attached a chart of the Dow Jones Index since January 1st 1999. It has moved a lot but overall there is little to show for it.

But seeing the news of getting to 10,000 all over the news, tv screens, newspapers and soon on magazine cover pages brings up a few questions.

Is the Dow Jones even relevant?

I’ve discussed this in the past. Basically, I do not really understand how the index is even still relevant and why it is discussed so much. Truth is that an index that has only 30 components and where bad performers are taken out to be replaced by “better” ones seems like an index that is bound to perform well no matter what. It’s not that surprising that a decade ago some were predicting that the Dow would reach levels of 20,000, 30,000 and in some cases even 50,000. To me, there are some indexes that are worth looking at such as the S&P500, which gives a much better indication of the global US economy as well as the US markets as a whole.. But the Dow Jones? Please!

Are there even consequences of getting to 10,000?

Absolutely. I’ll be the first one to tell you reaching 10K does not make any stock more attractive but the reality is that it does change things. When reaching 10,000, the Dow Jones generates interest and news. Reporters will discuss it, write about it, get ideas ofr their next magazine covers. You can be certain of one thing. Even someone who is not interested in the stock markets will probably still hear about the index getting to back to this level.

Psychological effect

And this of course will have an indirect impact on the market. Think about all of those passive investors that have been scared for months to even look at their portfolio. Suddenly, it seems as if things look a lot brighter. Consequence? They might call their advisor and tell them they’d like to get back in the market, or go out themselves and buy. Pschology has a huge impact on the financial markets and reaching a milestone like this is bound to create feelings for investors. This of course creates opportunities as well..the question is where we can find those of course!