“Leading energy experts across the country agree that recent, unprecedented jumps in crude oil prices are due, in large measure, to rampant speculation in the energy commodities markets.”
“19 of the nation’s top trade associations, consumer groups and labor organizations, the coalition urges “immediate reform in the widely-speculative energy commodity futures markets.”
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_Id=a0267544-59b1-4cd7-b41e-8f0e55738999
Abraham Lincoln was killed as a result of his monetary policies. John Wilkes Booth was a ‘hired gun.’ Lincoln needed money to finance the Civil War. He was offered loans at high interest rates by bankers in Europe led by the Rothschilds. Rather than accept the loans, Lincoln found other means to fund the war effort. More importantly, the British bankers opposed Lincoln’s protectionist policies. Some Englishmen in the 1860’s believed that “British free trade, industrial monopoly and human slavery travel together.” Lincoln’s policies after the Civil War would have destroyed the Rothschilds’ commodity speculations.
After the war, Lincoln planned a mild Reconstruction policy which would have enabled a resumption of agriculture production. The Rothschilds were betting the other way on high prices caused by a tough Reconstruction policy toward the South. Lincoln was viewed as a threat to the established order of things, and he was assassinated as a result?
Commodities are goods that are in broad demand and are pretty constant and do not differ much in terms of quality. For example, gold is gold whether it’s mined in Africa or Australia.
Because of this standard in quality, these goods become useful tools for investment and trading. When you buy a barrel of crude oil for example, you know what you’re getting and you won’t get short-changed or cheated.
Examples of goods and products that can be traded as commodities include:
* Precious metals such as gold, silver and copper.
* Agricultural products such as rubber, corn, rice and sugar.
* Energy and industrial resources such as crude oil, coal and aluminum.
* Non-traditional “resources”. Entrepreneurial people have started talking about “natural capital” and trading carbon emissions and weather.
Trading Commodities
When people talk about trading commodities, the majority of them are not actually buying one tonne of sugar and then selling it a week later.
Commodities are commonly traded using derivative tools such as futures. Buying a futures contract of an underlying commodity means you are buying the right to buy the commodity at a certain price at a certain future date. In the meantime, the actual price of the commodity goes up and down from day to day. This fluctuation makes the futures contract either go up or down in price depending on which direction the underlying commodity’s price goes.
The Commodity Market
Commodities are traded internationally, and are traded on various exchanges around the world. Examples of these include the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Australian Securities Exchange and the Tokyo Commodity Exchange. These exchanges act as marketplaces where commodity futures contracts can be traded and exercised.
The prices of commodities rise and fall. Some are cyclical, while others depend on the current economic outlook and political circumstances. For example, the price of agricultural products like corn and rice fluctuates depending on the time of year, and also on the year’s harvest.
On the other hand, commodities such as crude oil are very dependent on economic and political situations. For example, if there’s political instability such as war or government problems in the Middle East (where most of the oil producers are), the price of crude oil would rise. And the price would rise if the economy and industry are strong, and energy consumption is high; and vice versa.
Why trade Commodities?
The cyclical and trending natures of commodities provide investors with the opportunity to trade in commodity futures. Investors are able to earn from trading commodity futures by being able to predict the cycles and profiting during economic and political upheavals.
Commodity futures can also be traded to hedge against the chance that the underlying commodity doesn’t produce expected output in the current cycle. Companies whose business involves those commodities would then hedge against that and earn some money from commodity futures even though their products don’t sell well.
For investors and casual traders, commodity trading represents another method of trading other than shares or currency. The risks and rewards are similar, differentiated by the underlying commodities being traded.
If you are interested in commodity trading, you will need to do some research on the commodity you want to focus on, and analyse how its price varies depending on annual cycles as well and political and economic changes.
For further information on Business Planning, please visit the trading section of Income Resource Club at http://www.incomeresourceclub.com/trading.
By: Steven T. Ng
About the Author:
1. Community Reinvestment Act- 1995 Clinton
2. North American Free Trade Agreement- 1993 Clinton
3. Commidity Futures Modernization Act- 2000 Clinton
4. Repealed the Glass-Steagall Act- Clinton
President Clinton’s tenure was characterized by economic prosperity and financial deregulation, which in many ways set the stage for the excesses of recent years. Among his biggest strokes of free-wheeling capitalism was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, a cornerstone of Depression-era regulation. He also signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which exempted credit-default swaps from regulation. In 1995 Clinton loosened housing rules by rewriting the Community Reinvestment Act, which put added pressure on banks to lend in low-income neighborhoods. It is the subject of heated political and scholarly debate whether any of these moves are to blame for our troubles.
Dave- Not 1 year did the republicans controll the house and senate at the same time. (under Bush) House has been under the controll of the Democrats his whole time as president.
2nd trade and done by noon … “online day trading” “live trading” “live day trading” “online daytrading” profits “at the open” indicators “john paul” daytrade “day trade” “day trading online” “day trading live” “stock trading” commodities commodity “commodity trading” mini “Day trading S&P” “S&P e-mini” “S&P e mini” investing “ninja trader” tradestation ninjatrader “free e book” “candlestick charts” “price action” money day trader “making money” “how to day trade” “day trading the emini …
The particular economics that I like the most are product and resource markets, as well as monetary policy’s relationship with them and global trade. I am studying to be an economic analyst someday and I would like to stick with commodity markets and futures and speculating their S & D.
The school that i am transferring to does not offer a minor in finance but they do in geology/ Earth sciences (as well as several other sciences,including environmental). I can also dual major in econ and either finance or geology (or another science that influence such markets).
What seems to be the best course of action for me?
Geo/ earth sci minor or a double major in either finance or geo/ earth sci?
Things Commodity Trader’s need to know before trading Commodity Futures. … “commodity trading” “futures trading” “futures trading lesson”
When younger…Fear, NOT of God, but of public ridicule and rejection kept me a virgin.
I also saw myself as being less “valuable” if i were to trade in this “gift”.
Once gone, that mind set did not disappear, i still saw sex as a commodity in the relationship. I would withhold or give depending on my esteem (my esteem being based on how DESIRABLE i was). Personally, I wish my mother had taught me self worth instead of religious fear.
This one time act is a distant memory, not painful or endearing…it is one.
However, now that I know my worth…i’m even MORE careful to make sure that i enter into a physical act with a person i care about….so that i can really let loose…knowing that it is only ONE aspect of the relationship.
I don’t see the point of waiting for marriage, as i have seen many young people rush into commitment, only to being a slow let down process as sexually immature prisoners.
While I do plan to teach my daughter to wait…i wont stress marriage. . . just physical and emotional maturity. I don’t plan to bribe her with a false sense of worth or an ultimatum with God.
Your thoughts.
Morgan Stanley predicts oil prices to rise to $150 a barrel in July and they immediately jump $10 per barrel. And whichever commodities trader who purchased 10 million barrels of oil just made $100 million which comes out of my pocket. Should there be a law against publicly trading oil? Should people who do not drill, ship, refine the oil be making billions in profits at our expense? I of course am not buying the wallstreet explanation that that is only a small percentage of the cost of gas. What can be done? Isn’t this something we have just started doing a few years ago? Trading oil publicly?
Actually I DO have to buy gas. Especially in today’s job market there are few jobs around the corner from my house. I have to work in the next state. I do however own a Kia Rio stick that gets great mileage. Still. Its too much for gas.
Specifically I want to know who you feel benefits & who you feels suffers from having millions of illegals in this country. My opinion on who benefits and suffers is:
1. Employers – Labor is like any other commodity. The more laborers we have the lower the cost of labor. Or course that means people earn less on average. Study after study shows a decline in wages for trades that employ illegals. Janitors, construction and meatpacking are just a few that used to pay middle class wages.
2. The illegals themselves. It goes without saying that their standard of living goes up. Of course that means that someone else is not getting the services they use. Our less fortunate CITIZENS have less access to health care, education and welfare because illegals are taking those services meant for citizens.
3. The country the illegal comes from. They send billions back to their home countries. Which helps that countries economy but hurts ours. If that employee was an American all of that money would stay here and be spent here, not somewhere else.
4. Everyone who buys anything produced or handled by those making the lower wages benefits. Our produce is indeed cheaper then it would be by a small amount. The downside is that we pay more in taxes to support the illegals through their childrens education (WAY over $10,000 per child per year!!!), their healthcare (no matter how few visits they make to our hospitals WE have to pay for it), their crimes (when they rob, rape, steal ID, etc) and other costs.
What do you think?
Are the studies wrong? Do more laborers actually make our wages go up magically? Will millions of people who aren’t here legally actually help the average Joe? Will our energy costs go down when 20 million people self-deport or will their staying make our energy costs continue to skyrocket?
Thoughts?
Blitz – so its OK to you that our own citizens and kids, who used to make a decent wage doing those jobs, cannot get that work anymore?
And its OK that those wage deflations carry over to the waitresses and foremen so that they earn less too?
Greasy tony – as usual you entertain me with your reference to BLOGS (ie: sources that are cherry picked) and you also continue to confuse LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigrants.
As for sources: Here is one that has all the info you could ever want and more.
http://www.cis.org/Costs
As for your answers.
1. Since most illegals don’t pay income tax and SS (They only way they pay those are if they are also ID theft criminals) they pay very little into that system.
2. Illegals use far more in medical then they ever pay – see #1 above as to why.
3. Yes it does matter. If AMERICANS had those jobs then the BILLIONS that they send home would stay here and create more jobs HERE!!!
4. That’s an outright lie. Just consider education. Illegal children (and anchor babies) cost at least $10,000 per year and far far more in most areas. (LA county is around $14,000 now). How many illegals even pay enough to cover ONE CHILD??? Very few to none!!!
5. Again we pay for that by everyone earning less!!
