Free Investing

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
Below we highlight our trading range charts for ten major commodities. For each chart, the green shading represents between two standard deviations above and below the commodity's 50-day moving average. Moves above or below the green shading are considered overbought or oversold. Oil has bounced off of oversold levels in recent days, but it is still closer to the bottom of its trading range than the top. Natural gas, on the other hand, continues to surge higher, and it is now trading well into overbought territory. Gold remains in a strong uptrend, and it is pretty close to the top of its range. Platinum really sold off sharply when equity markets took their dive, and it is just now starting to recover. Silver is just about in the middle of its range.Complete Story »

Phil Davis submits: CNBC has now gone way too far! Using their first amendment shield to shout FIRE in a crowded theater, CNBC began stampeding investors out of the market at 3pm yesterday, when they decided to have a temper tantrum as the Senate had the nerve to approve financial reform, which will hopefully stop CNBC’s advertisers from screwing people over quite as hard as they have in the past. Note on the video, the Dow was at 10,209 at 3pm and then just watch the market move while they speak - what power!Complete Story »

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
Below we highlight our trading range charts for ten major commodities. For each chart, the green shading represents between two standard deviations above and below the 50-day moving average. Moves above or below the green zone are considered overbought or oversold. As shown, oil and copper both moved into oversold territory over the past couple of weeks as global equity markets pulled back. Conversely, gold and silver moved higher to overbought territory. Platinum remains in an uptrend and is currently right in the middle of its trading range. Natural gas, corn, and wheat remain in long-term downtrends, while coffee and orange juice have been moving sideways lately.Complete Story »

Tom Lydon submits:

It’s interesting what a little good news can do. Precious metals traders became a little more optimistic about the recovery as reassuring economic data come forth, pushing up palladium and platinum ETFs.Palladium and platinum rallied as the dollar declined against a basket of global currencies, which made the two metals more attractive to overseas buyers, reports Sandy Shore for the Associated Press. Palladium closed at $508 an ounce Monday, crossing the $500 per ounce mark for the first time since March 2008, and platinum ended at $1,703.80 an ounce.Complete Story »

Tom Lydon submits:

Gold ETFs were all the rage… until physically-backed platinum ETFs came along. Many investors are now considering whether it makes more sense to use platinum in their portfolios the way gold has historically been used.Does platinum make more sense than gold? While gold has time and major performances on its side, platinum even more rare and every bit as attractive. While gold is popularly used in wiring, platinum is even more versatile on the industrial front. Among other things, it’s used in automotive catalytic converters and LCD TV screens, reports Christopher Helman for Forbes.Complete Story »

Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Platinum and palladium were once best-known for their role in cleaning up emissions, thanks to their use in catalytic converters. A pair of new funds from ETF Securities has thrust them into a newer spotlight: platinum and palladium as investments. These physically-backed funds, which are a first in the United States, have left millions of investors with platinum on the brain. Try this on for size: before ETFS Physical Platinum (PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium (PALL) came to market, investment demand was low. Now, investment demand accounts for approximately 11% of total platinum market demand.Complete Story »

Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Commodity ETFs have attracted a rabid investor following in a relatively short period of time. To play in the commodity sandbox before ETFs came along, you needed risk tolerance and capital. Today, you just need desire.Last week, we discussed physically backed ETFs, which are just as the name implies: each share is backed by a physical product. Right now, physically backed ETFs only give exposure to precious metals. You won’t find an ETF backed by barrels of oil or livestock.Complete Story »

Back in September 2009, I had recommended two trades in the PGM (platinum group metal) space. (The the recommendation is here.)Trade idea:Complete Story »

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
The stock market is up about 65% since the 3/9/09 low, but oil has actually outperformed stocks over this time period with a gain of 72.64%. Below we highlight the performance of ten major commodities over the last year. As shown, copper is up the most with a gain of 108%, while orange juice ranks second with a gain of 101%. Of the three main precious metals, platinum is up the most at 50%, followed by silver at +33.73%, and then gold at +22.16%. Even natural gas is up since the March 9th, 2009 low with a gain of 16%. Wheat and corn are the only commodities shown that are down over the last year. Corn is down 11%, while wheat is down 18.27%.click to enlargeComplete Story »

Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: You might have been among the investors unloading platinum and palladium over the last few weeks as a pair of ETFs pushed prices higher. But a round of new fundamentals favoring the metals may have you rethinking that.After ETF Securities‘ popular funds launched, platinum and palladium prices surged to highs:Complete Story »