You don’t hear much about commodity investing these days. As I talked about last week in this space, long-term commodity futures investing has turned out to be a sucker’s bet, leading generally to long-term losses. But that doesn’t mean nothing’s going on in the world of commodity futures. In fact, the rapid evolution of commodity […] Read more
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Investing in commodities isn’t as wild as it once was
Cowboys, masked men, risk and mitigation
Risk minimization appears to be a challenging concept
Why not go all-in on stocks right now? After all, we’ve had a three month rally going on. Sure, you can say markets go up and down, and there’s a lot of downside risk, but what if stocks only go up? As newborn day trader David Portnoy told Fox Business about market bears and the […] Read more
Plant protein finds federal funds
An extra $90 million in federal government money is flowing into the Merit Functional Foods plant protein facility in Winnipeg. It’s a show of support for agricultural science and innovation, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said June 22. “We are creating a new domestic market for our farmers, we are investing in science and innovation […] Read more
Traders see bright future for globalization
Representatives from European, American and Chinese grain trade interests hope protectionist tendencies will ease
A cautious but optimistic world grain trade hopes to get back to “normal” business soon and back to globalization. There have been shocks to many countries’ food systems and a rising tide of protectionism, but members of a panel at the International Grains Council’s annual meeting sounded confident. “Through COVID-19 we should deeply realize the […] Read more
Canadian exporters face stiff trade headwinds
China is using trade as part of its geopolitical policy, while the United States’ ‘America First’ position causes problems
Canadian farmers might feel battered and bruised by trading partners these days, but they’re actually lucky — in the long run, at least. “Canada won the geographic lottery,” said Jacob Shapiro, a geopolitics expert with Perch Perspectives, in a June 12 interview. “The challenges (today) compared to what other nations are facing? Canada’s doing fine […] Read moreRules-based trade, yes, but Canada needs flexible policies too
The United States: Unreliable and undependable. China: Undependable and sometimes hostile. India: A mystery and a wild card. The rule-based, pro free-trade world: Shrinking and weak. How does Canada find a strategy to deal with that kind of a crazy, mixed-up world situation? That’ll be the challenge for Canada for the next decade, probably, as […] Read more
Market tools quickly adapt to COVID
Derivatives markets in grain continue to evolve as impacts of COVID-19 and the winds of protectionism buffet the global industry. Grain exchange officials from Europe and South America told the International Grains Council annual conference that they continue to develop new products and are modifying the products that the ever-changing industry could use. “It really […] Read more
Plant protein plant plan finds federal funds
An extra $90 million in federal government money is flowing into the Merit Functional Foods plant protein plant in Winnipeg. It’s a show of support for agricultural science and innovation, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said June 22. “We are creating a new domestic market for our farmers, we are investing in science and innovation […] Read more
Study warns against long-term commodity investments
Long-term passive holding of commodity futures does not earn a return, concludes a group of agricultural economists. It’s the reiteration of a conclusion gutsily made by Scott Irwin and Dwight Sanders in 2012 — at the very height of the long-term commodity bull market, when multitudes believed otherwise. “No-one wanted to hear what we were […] Read more
Long-term investment in commodity futures defies the obvious
Intelligent people can convince themselves to believe the silliest things. Some make themselves believe that wearing masks does nothing to minimize COVID-19 transmission. Others insist that wearing a bicycle helmet makes you more likely to get into an urban bike crash than not wearing one. And multitudes of supposedly smart-money people convinced themselves that investing […] Read more
