Metals

• The Coming Copper Crisis and Price Forecasting - Is There a Better Way?

  David Threlkeld of metals trading advisor Resolved Inc. got some press this week. That happens when you predict a catastrophe. Threlkeld was quoted by Bloomberg repeating an ominous prediction he first made in May 2006. The call? That the copper market is heading for a catastrophic collapse. With the LME price falling to below $1 per pound. Threlkeld has some credentials. He was one of the first to expose rogue copper trader Yasuo Hamanaka in the mid-1990s. And point out that Sumitomo's hoarding of copper was having an undue effect on prices. His arguments on the coming copper crisis make…

• Thoughts from Asia's Gold Exchange

  The Tokyo Commodities Exchange is a pretty unassuming place. The Exchange is housed in a non-descript eight-story office building. In the relatively non-descript Tokyo borough of Kodenmacho, far from the hustle of the business districts. In times past, the area was the center for Tokyo's cotton trade. The exchange sprung up in service of this industry. Today, the firm no longer trades cotton but instead specializes in oil, rubber and especially precious metals. Passing by on the street, you'd never guess this is the second-largest gold exchange in the world. In 2008, more than $300 billion worth of precious metals…

• The Two Kinds of Junior Natural Resource Companies

  There are two kinds of junior natural resource companies. When you analyze, it's critical to realize which one you're dealing with. The first type are explorers. These are companies hoping to find something. Oil, gold, geothermal energy. They have not yet made a discovery, but they possess expertise that gives them a chance of doing so. The second type are developers. Companies that have found something. And are now working on figuring out how big, how challenging and how costly that something will be to get out of the ground. This is a basic distinction. But it provides some very…

• Why Are We So Obsessed With Gold?

  Have you ever stopped to consider just what it is about gold that makes it so special and valuable? How is it that while gold is undoubtedly the most famous, popular, frequently written about and widely discussed metal in existence, so many still know so very little about it? The word "gold" comes from the Old English word “geolo” which means yellow. Gold is extremely dense, yet amazingly soft and malleable. It is highly attractive, bright, shiny,   almost glowingly radiant metal that is resistant to such deprecating factors as corrosion and rust in both air and water. A very pliable…

• Silver - Gold's Poorer Cousin Uncovered

  For centuries silver has always played "second fiddle" to its "prettier, more popular cousin," gold. While gold has continued to be the precious metal that everybody wants, loves and adores, wise investors are now beginning to take a good look at the value of silver in a diversified portfolio. Here’s why: As the entire world continues to rapidly advance into the realms of modern day, state of the art technology, medical research and infrastructure building, silver is duly noted as a far more useful metal that touches all our lives on a moment to moment basis. The basic science of…

• Platinum - Gold’s big brother Uncovered!

  Whilst Gold is busy grabbing the headlines, it’s bigger, rarer, more versatile and useful brother is quietly doing its job of providing Industry and manufacturing with the base elements they need to help run our world. Most people just know platinum for its expense or it’s appearance in jewellers windows, but this incredible metal is much more than that! So what exactly is platinum? Platinum is a precious metal, which basically means it’s rare, expensive and composed of metallic elements that are scarce.It’s a silvery white metallic colour (somewhere in between silver and Nickel) It’s a very dense metal with…

• Why Copper Is Such An Important Economic Indicator!

  For decades, copper has served as an effective barometer of the economic health of a region. This amazing consistency of ability to gauge a realistic prognosis of an area’s economic vitality is precisely why financial experts have traditionally referred to copper as “Dr. Copper!” Copper is a relatively inexpensive and extremely plentiful metal with numerous useful properties. It effectively resists corrosion and is a very effective conductor of both electricity and heat. This quite naturally makes copper a prominently relied upon and utilized “center piece” of any emerging or expanding industrial economy. From electrical wiring to plumbing, from radiators to…

• Commodity Trading – A Basic Guide

  Commodity trading has a rich and colorful history going all the way back to the mid 1800s. Our “Industrial Revolution” brought new technologies and abilities to produce more efficient tools and consequently more food. As our economic output began to out-pace population growth, we developed a need for more efficient agricultural storage, transportation and distribution of goods.As the quantity of goods increased exponentially, “futures markets” with reliably uniform commodity pricing, grading and delivery became an absolute necessity in order to deal with the seasonal gluts occurring just after harvest and sharp shortages occurring before harvest. Farmers and investors could now…