Cash flow rentals tend to be more prominent in the Midwest whereas investing for appreciation/flipping potential could be higher on the coasts where values are more volatile.

It is not a get rich quick book but a slow march through the most volatile market in history.  

I know that this works really well in Asia and I am sure it works well in other emerging areas as well.In the same way that highly volatile real estate prices gives the rational investor an advantage, the lemming-like behavior on Wall Street gives the logical investor a great way to exploit fads.P.S.

The big question through this period of extreme housing and economic volatility will be whether the investor can hold the properties he's bought.

It also has a toolkit that you can get to play with the models.Comparison of different option models,"From Black Scholes to Black Holes" from Risk/Finex.For the pure Buying and Selling of volatility trading approach, this is what we use today mostly for longer-term market neutral vol plays on liquid issues, "Buying and Selling Volatility" by Kevin B Connolly is a good, simple book.

But I am new, so it's expected :) The crazy volatile 2X and 3X ETFs seem like a way to win or lose big fast.

Commodities are totally volatile and in a short time you could lose your shirt, so unless your heart can take it, stay away from those.

You can look to other markets as to an investor's opportunity costs, alternative investments, but risk can be a difficult aspect to factor in comparing stock to real estate, or long term market factors to volatile stock prices and slow rates of appreciation.

You could do a stock market index fund, but there is a lot of volatility from month to month, so there is risk your investment could be down when you go to get the cash.

But this is the same basic list that I talk about quite regularly with others:1) Public REITs2) Direct Ownership of small properties3) SyndicationsTo me:1) Public REITs - typically fairly low dividend yield, strong correlation to equities market, high volatility, no pass through losses2) Direct Ownership - debatable how passive it really is3) Syndications - possibly high barrier of entry (accredited investor and/or high minimum), limited transparency, illiquid, no controlAnd then you can get into tax effects with 1099 vs K-1 vs direct Schedule E from a P&L