Category: Futures, Options and Commodities
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Why Commodities in a Portfolio
This is not an April Fools joke…commodities belong in all portfolios if an investor has some risk aversion just look what’s happening in commodities compared to other asset classes. Crude has its highest close in 2011 to kick off the first trading day in Q2. The momentum should carry prices upwards of $110/barrel but we…
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Fat Tuesday
Our wallets as consumers are not fat with the rising price of commodities this Fat Tuesday…from gas to a loaf of bread prices are moving higher. Crude is showing signs of exhaustion…NO I’m net advising getting short but a $5-7 correction seems reasonable. A trade back to just the 20 day MA in May drags…
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Day Trading: Risk Averse need not Apply
Traders are often lured to into the futures markets with a fascination for day trading. The thought of trading leveraged contracts without overnight risk is appealing to many, but underestimated by most. As a retail broker I have had the pleasure, and the pain, of watching day traders attempt to profit through strategies ranging from…
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Israel Set To Join the Rich Countries Club
Israel, there is good news and bad news. The good news – and it is huge – is that Israel will soon be awash in natural gas. Gas discovered on the country’s outer continental shelf will turn the country from being hydrocarbon-deprived to being a net exporter. Indeed, Israel is set to become so rich…
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Oil Price Could Doom Obama
Like death and taxes, the price of oil is always with us. And like taxes, it may be President Barack Obama’s worst nightmare at election time next year. Among forecasters, there is a sharp division between those who see an inexorable rise in the price of oil and those who believe it will stabilize about…
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Why Uranium Will Make Someone Rich
Uranium is a very unusual sector. For one, it’s small. So small, that at one point in history top-producing nations like Canada and France tried to form a uranium cartel to control prices for the metal. The “uranium OPEC” failed. But production today is de facto controlled by a handful of companies. Consider this. The…
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ADB Launches $9 Billion Plan for Solar Energy in Asia
The Asian Development Bank launched a $9 billion solar energy initiative to develop projects generating 3,000 megawatts by 2012. The announcement, which came at the regional lending agency’s annual meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, said that Central Asian countries would be prime candidates for siting the projects. “Given Central Asia’s growing demand for electricity, the availability…
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The Search for a Reserve Currency
Currency, like all forms of abstract value, is based on trust. And trust itself is based – except among the most naïve – on experience, and the repetitive demonstration of fidelity, whether positive or negative. At present, the US dollar, which had experienced a gradual rise during the 20th Century to the position gained well…
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Shift of Gas Producers to Oil Investment
SandRidge Energy’s agreement this week to acquire Arena Resources, a producer of conventional oil in West Texas, for $1.6 billion is the latest example of natural gas companies seeking to balance their portfolios with more oil as the two resources decouple in price. Natural gas prices have fallen more than 25% this year to below…