Commodities/Futures |

Putting things in perspective

As readers are probably aware already, I'm no fan of the equity markets in general these days. Valuation metrics are OK, but are betting on continued, if not improving, profit margins, which I doubt.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: equity, volatility

Commodities/Futures, Strategy/Allocation | | March 6, 2012 1:16 pm | Comments Off

Cotton Is King

Well, these days, maybe "India is King" may be more apropos. India today announced a seemingly random ban on the export of cotton - India is the world's second largest cotton exporter. While the interesting point about this move are endless (e.g.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: agriculture, commodity trading, cotton, india

Commodities/Futures | | March 5, 2012 6:46 pm | Comments Off

Oil is touching $107

Oil is touching $107 and gas prices are rising, yet I don't hear much complaining. On CNBC, Cramer even talked about the ameliorating impact of low natural gas prices, so that consumers stunned at the pump might be pleasantly surprised by their home heating bills.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: energy, nuclear

Commodities/Futures | | February 23, 2012 1:52 pm | Comments Off

The Silent Creeping Up

No, I'm not talking about Apple, very loudly creeping up, then down and representing ever more SPX points. The creeping up is oil.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: brent, energy, oil

Commodities/Futures | | February 15, 2012 3:58 pm | Comments Off

You can’t hang it on your wall, but it’s probably better than art

Art has periodically made the news with ever-larger price tags and hedge fund millionaires buying up the next big photo trends. My thinking this week coincides with the end of Art Basel in Miami, which proved to be another hit. But my goal today isn't to write about art.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: collectibles, stamps

Commodities/Futures | | January 1, 2012 7:08 pm | Comments Off

Paul Brodsky and QBAMCO on Gold

Paul Brodsky always has great insight into the credit markets and interest rates, along with the market in general, so it was great to receive his insight on gold. Here are the two points I want readers to realize:

Real interest rates (nominal rates less CPI) are negative across the majority of the largest developed and emerging economies, implying that a stable or rising gold price has positive carry.

When valued in terms of Enterprise Value per Gold Ounce (EV/Gold), in-ground bullion may be owned for as little as $30/oz through shares in operating companies already in production (we will distribute a more in-depth analysis of this to Fund investors later in the month).

I would encourage you to read the entire piece to get a quick summary of the dynamics in the gold market.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: gold, paul brodsky, Real Estate

Commodities/Futures | | December 21, 2011 9:31 am | Comments Off

File this under Unintended Consequences

A lot has already been written about MF Global, and it has so many twists and turns, that I assume it will be fodder for the conspiracy theorists for years. Putting aside the political intrigue and the missing money, there are also some investment implications.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: mf global, resource nationalism, resource shortage, Richard Rainwater

Commodities/Futures | | December 7, 2011 9:49 am | Comments Off

Natural Gas

Natural gas continues to hang out at its lows, and I'm liking it more and more.

What's also interesting is that UNG, which is the ETF created to play natural gas continues to diverge from the commodity, so that even as the commodity stabilizes and even has a few up days, UNG continues to underperform.

The above chart is the ratio of the natural gas index: UNG monthly since the inception of UNG in 2007.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: energy, fcg, natural gas

Commodities/Futures | | December 2, 2011 11:37 am | Comments Off

Silver

The poor man's gold. Silver was going wild, then came back down. I had bought it in the teens, and sold it in the 40's, and was pretty happy to sit out for most of the recent volatility. But here's the thing - I still believe that central banks will have to print.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: gold, silver

Commodities/Futures | | November 30, 2011 11:36 am | Comments Off

The real alternative energy

A long long time ago, there was a lot of talk about alternative energy, and then the government got involved, and the talk subsided, but it was always there, and there were prominent VC's who touted it, and then we all shifted our attention to Europe - and now . . .Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: alternative energy, coal, energy, natural gas, nuclear, oil

Commodities/Futures | | November 18, 2011 12:34 pm | Comments Off

Oil and Ag

It's all in the timing. I recently spoke to a client about the recent divergence between oil and the agricultural space. I'm not a chart specialist, but I do like to reference the charts for a quick view of history. In this case, the spread between oil and ag indices looks pretty stretched. .Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: agriculture, commodity trading, energy, oi-ag spread, oil, spread trading

Commodities/Futures | | November 10, 2011 3:58 pm | Comments Off

Another oil shock?

From a recent report by McKinsey:

It’s been a while since the world has been truly preoccupied with the threat of sustained high oil prices.

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Tags: energy, oil shock

Commodities/Futures | | November 3, 2011 11:04 am | Comments Off

An Old Relic

Sure, gold is an old relic, but we've held on through the recent hiccups without losing focus.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: currency trading, gold, gold as currency

Commodities/Futures | | October 25, 2011 2:33 pm | Comments (0)

Oil and energy

As the world's growth is being recognized for what it is, namely anemic if not outright negative, oil and the industrial commodities have come off a good 30+%.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: energy, oil

Commodities/Futures | | October 6, 2011 2:02 pm | Comments (0)

Dr. Copper is in session

Copper has been called one of the better economists throughout the modern age since it's used in everything from cars to housing to pretty much every mechanical knickknack you can imagine.Viewing the remainder of this article requires a Subscription

Tags: copper, dr. copper, valuations

Commodities/Futures | | September 28, 2011 2:29 pm | Comments (0)

Category: Commodities/Futures