A viewer writes: “I met with the finance guys today and I’m going to be mulling over their recommendations. One of the things they recommend is funds that are based on derivatives, but your channelings indicated that those are destabilizing on the market. I have a couple of questions for you as follow-ups on that. Is it ethical to do short selling and similarly, to use derivatives-based funds?”

It is not unethical to do so. This is a normal function of the markets and how they function. The short sellers actually work to keep things honest by applying selling pressure to keep prices moderated. So this is not inherently something that is immoral. It is part of the way the markets work and therefore part of the risk undertaken by all that such influences will be at work. The question of derivatives and their consequences is much more complicated. There are many examples where it is straightforward and simple leverage that is not unreasonable under the risks inherent with the type of investment approach being used. There are other situations where the risks go up markedly through being overleveraged. This is a judgment call and not something that can be answered categorically with a simple "yes" or "no" in the type of question being asked. Nor can we give individual investment advice because this is always conditional and subject to change due to fluctuating circumstances. The future is uncertain always. Even we do not know with certainty everything that will happen and when. We go by existing probabilities but they are not guaranteed to follow along our expectations. There are sometimes very improbable things that suddenly will occur and to us are unexpected. That is the consequence of free will at work and we are not in charge of all that happens and so must wait to see how things develop. We do understand ongoing plans and forecasts and we see the future being generated by the current potentials as it crystallizes and becomes a future extension of the current lifetime, but that too is always in flux and subject to revision and alteration by free will choices made along the way by the participants themselves. This creates a quite dynamic flux in things and makes anything we might say, in the way of a prediction, much less certain than people might appreciate. You are caught in the middle with these kinds of questions and we do not want you to be at risk even wanting to do your utmost in service to your clients to take on the risks of their well-being and livelihood based on uncertainties of the future, and so we would suggest deferring all such inquiries and simply refer people to the general channelings to draw from it what they choose to hear and feel within is appropriate for their personal circumstances. There are many things that can happen here and to pin one’s future totally on one asset class with an expectation of seeing growth always carries risk because things can change and there may well be changes in the timeline as well. It is for this reason we feel it is important to step aside with such inquiries. There are legal liabilities as well, much as with giving health care advice, as well as the karmic and moral constraints and obligations you enter into as a would-be source of divine wisdom.