For months, equities and other risky assets have been mired in a persistent trading range featuring stomach churning volatility, headline risk, and enough fireworks to chase away many retail investors. Equity fund outflows have been heavy, the highest in two years. Yet the S&P 500 is also up nearly 11% from its June low and is now pushing over the 1,400 level for the first time since late April.

This is what I've been waiting for. I've been pounding on the table that people were too negative -- seen in both investor sentiment surveys, the focus on defensive stocks, and in options/futures market positioning -- and that an upside surprise was just around the corner.

Now the question is: Will it last? And where should investors arriving late to the party focus their attention?

Yes, the economy is in poor shape with GDP growth slowing to just 1.5% in the second quarter and the unemployment creeping back up to 8.3% last month. But stocks and risky assets -- especially commodities -- have been moving higher over the last few days on a combination of lowered economic expectations (seen in the turn in the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index) and an increasingly aggressive easing bias by the main global central banks.

Both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank last week all but promised to unleash new stimulus measures as we move deeper into the second half of the year. And there are signs Germany is growing increasingly tolerant of more aggressive measures to contain unsustainably high Spanish and Italian borrowing costs.

This has helped fuel the first major breakout in "risk on" assets since January. Treasury bonds are falling hard as money is pulled out of that "safe haven" trade. The dollar is dropping and the euro is rising. Investors are focusing on cyclical, riskier, economically-sensiti​ve stocks in a big way. Commodities are on the move. And inflation expectations -- a proxy for growth expectations and a harbinger of higher gold and silver prices -- are moving up quickly.

I continue to recommend my newsletter subscribers and readers focus on a few areas showing the most strength: Foreign stocks, precious metals, energy (fading), semiconductors (rising), and financials (rising).

Examples in my Edge Letter Sample Portfolio include Amkor Technology (AMKR), VelocityShares 3x Silver (USLV), Spreadstream Communications (SPRD), and First Majestic Silver (AG). These positions are up 7.1%, 8.3%, 9%, and 7.9% respectively since they were added less than two weeks ago.

I'm adding two new ideas to my holdings today: Memory maker Micron Technology (MU) and beleaguered lender National Bank of Greece (NBG), which seems to be catching a bid on the euro's newfound strength as well as a call from the International Monetary Fund that the Eurozone lenders should write off more Greek debt as a way to return that country to fiscal health.

Disclosure: Anthony has recommended NBG, SPRD, USLV, and AG to his newsletter subscribers.

Check out Anthony's investment advisory service The Edge. A two-week free trial has been extended to MSN Money readers. Click here to sign up. Contact Anthony at anthony@edgeletter.c​​​om and follow him on Twitter at @EdgeLetter. You can view his current stock picks here. Feel free to comment below.