Let's discuss commodities; with the latest Enron situation, it is important to understand the way things work. A commodity is anything useful, especially a transportable agricultural product or mining product. This comes from the Latin word "commoditas" meaning roughly advantage, convenience. So then what is a commodity? Well we consider Gold, Silver, wheat, corn, pork bellies, coffee, etc all commodities. If you look in the back of the WSJ or Investors Business Daily you will see a listing of all the commodities traded on the commodities exchange. Enron made some errors no doubt, but let's not judge all commodity markets in haste.
Commodity trading works best when there is a stable instrument of trade. Sometimes the instrument of trade is actually the commodity. If you looked most countries of the world today you would find that there are three basic instruments of trade; money, as in currency, precious metals and gems, drugs; like cocaine, opium, and arms, like grenade launchers, RPGs, bullets, machine guns, WMD, tanks, and surface to air handheld rockets. Yes, this can have horrible human rights issues, but we are discussing this from a theoretical standpoint, not condemning the obvious problems with mankind.
Many countries without a stabilized currency are trading everything in arms and drugs. Even human sex slaves and other unfortunate means; a travesty, which cannot be argued. The commodity trading of cultural products is of necessity to stabilize prices and to feed the world and help in the planning and allocation of funds for future needs. If a farmer cannot make an honest living farming a field then microeconomics tells us that eventually he'll exit the marketplace. When there is a need for a product such as corn, sugar, oil, etc. and that need is so important to the people buying it, then they will be willing to pay in advance a certain price for it, so they can guarantee they will get it. For instance Kellogg's needs sugar to fulfill the needs of their customers who will buy pop tarts. If they do not get the sugar the cannot produce the pop tarts. Everyone loves pop tarts, but if Kellogg has sugar than they cannot make the pop tarts to sell you at Wal-Mart. Kelloggs can due to commodities markets buy in advance and at a known price prior to the harvest of the sugar necessary to produce my Brown Sugar Cinamon Pop Tarts. Think about it.
"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.worldthinktank.net/wttbbs
one time home cleaning Highland Park ..Sidney felt sick as she looked at her latest OptionsXpress... Read More
The Shadow knows. There used to be a radio program... Read More
Most stock market traders have a favorite technical indicator.The one... Read More
For years investors have been taught to look into the... Read More
Investors who exclusively use broadly diversified, no load mutual funds... Read More
Two weeks ago I wrote about what the Securities and... Read More
I cringe every time I hear a novice investor tell... Read More
Stocks breakout from properly formed bases everyday but many investors... Read More
For some "long term" would mean holding a stock position... Read More
Wall Street has been preaching for years and years to... Read More
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck... Read More
Inverted interest rates? What's that? Who cares? Even if you... Read More
On the 40 year journey through the turmoil of a... Read More
Three little pigs went to the market to stock up... Read More
There is a current movie entitled "Eternal Sunshine of the... Read More
You'd have had to be living on a desert island... Read More
Every successful trader has a winning system. There are of... Read More
There is no question that the stock market is being... Read More
I know there are a lot of you out there... Read More
TOO OFTEN, INVESTORS SIMPLY CHOOSE TO follow the crowd. This... Read More
As an investor you will want to check out any... Read More
The thinking process of the brain relating to the... Read More
This is a guide to the different types of mutual... Read More
Every day I see in the financial section of newspapers... Read More
Money: the most charged word in the planet. It means... Read More
licensed cleaning services Park Ridge ..Quick, look out the window. It's raining. No, the sun's... Read More
After the publication of the first part of this two... Read More
Investors who exclusively use broadly diversified, no load mutual funds... Read More
The recent criminal fiasco in the mutual fund industry is... Read More
Let's first define insanity. It is doing the same thing... Read More
What does it mean to short a stock?This means that... Read More
I'll bet with almost anyone that has stocks or mutual... Read More
One of the great truisms of Wall Street is "Don't... Read More
Duck! No I don't mean a quack, quack. I meant... Read More
Let's go into the details of why non-indexed mutual funds... Read More
Wall Street has been preaching for years and years to... Read More
The greatest stock market myth is the idea that investing... Read More
Stock trading can be a very profitable activity. You can... Read More
Several times each month I am solicited by various market... Read More
(1) CHK stock price $16.74, NAV $32.5CHK is my favorite... Read More
If you are going to be a winner in the... Read More
The demand for world oil is increasing while world reserves... Read More
In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in... Read More
The thinking process of the brain relating to the... Read More
Cat or dog? Maybe Zebra. Shucks, I don't know, but... Read More
When you become interested in a stock or mutual fund... Read More
Picking a beaten-down stock requires a different kind of selection... Read More
You've decided to try your luck at trading stocks or... Read More
I cringe every time I hear a novice investor tell... Read More
I am taking the time to help others learn the... Read More
Stocks & Mutual Fund |