Commodities update: Soybean, Wheat, Corn

Quick update on agricultural commodities. News of possible land nationalization/reorganizing in Bolivia has me wondering what impact there might be on soybeans. Tensions still exist over Brazilian/Bolivian land disputes and may affect farmers working land in Bolivian lowlands bordering Brazil. From Bloomberg:

Brazilian farmers in Bolivia are concerned they may be the next target of a campaign by President Evo Morales to seize foreign assets.

``I'm very apprehensive,'' said Brazilian-born Ener Sanches, 46, who has 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) planted with soybeans and owns a fertilizer company in the southern city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. ``They are trying to pit one group against the other.''

There is a great deal of concern over gas disputes between Bolivia and its largest consumer of natural gas, Brazil. Now, a new source of tensions could emerge:

The second concern is illegal or undocumented occupation of Bolivian land, especially land within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the Brazilian border, territory that Bolivia's constitution prohibits foreigners from owning, Colanzi said.

Brazilian farmers, who have helped make Brazil the world's second-largest soybean producer and exporter after the U.S., found it easy to move across the border and open up land in Bolivia.

According to Farm Futures news, the Chicago Board of Trade will launch a South American Soybean contract on Monday. South America produces over 50% of the world's soybeans.July soybean contract ended the day unchanged at $6.13 a bushel.

July Wheat ended up 9.4 cents at the CBOT to close at $401.4. Corn futures also closed higher, with the July corn contract up 11.2 cents to close at $2.58. Business Week reported an Agricultural Department study finds ethanol demand will push corn prices higher this year. News regarding wheat and soybeans were also included in the report.

Lessons from Hedge Fund Market Wizards: Scott Ramsey

Today we continue our series, "Lessons from Hedge Fund Market Wizards" , with a look at Jack Schwager's interview with Scott Ramsey of Denali Asset Management. Ramsey, a futures trader and CTA who works on the island of St. Croix, spoke to Schwager about his first foray into the markets, his evolution as a trader, and the process he stands by to protect and grow his clients' money. 1) . Ramsey started trading in college. He was roped into the OTC metals market via a broker's ad in the Wall St. Journal. The broker charged customers a flat fee to buy and sell as much as they wanted in a particular market for six month. At the time, Scott was a novice and didn't know about futures, so he traded metals in this fashion through the inflationary run-up of the late 1970s. 2) . Scott had to rethink his trading strategy after he bought silver at $50 an oz., only to watch it collapse to $26 following a long string of limit-down days. He sold as soon as the market...

Round trip stocks: momentum booms and busts

" No tree grows to Heaven ." - Old proverb adopted by Wall Street. What happens to hot momentum stocks when their rocket fuel runs out? How long can they continue to fly before they come crashing back down to earth? Why is the stock that you paid $100 a share for now trading at $39? These are questions that many novice traders and investors may be struggling with in the wake of the most recent market correction. Momentum stocks have been hit hard as the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 indices have moved lower in recent weeks. Caught unaware by the recent slide, some traders may be wondering when their beaten-down stocks will snap back and allow them to exit with smaller losses (or even reach the mythical "break even" point). While growth stocks still firmly within their uptrends may form constructive technical bases and move higher after this correction, others may experience sharper pullbacks or break down into full "stage 4" declines (see chart below...

Finance Trends 2019 Mid-Year Markets Review

Email subscribers of the Finance Trends Newsletter receive the first look at new articles and market updates, such as the following piece, sent out to our email list on Sunday (6/14). Hello and welcome, everyone! If you received our last email notice over the July 4th holiday, you'll know that this weekend's newsletter will serve as a mid-year market update and a follow-up to issue #29, " How to Reinvest in a Rising Market ". Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let's start the show... Finance Trends Newsletter: Our Mid-Year Market Review When we last spoke, back in February, the U.S. stock market was rallying off its December-January lows. As the S&P 500 and Nasdaq reclaimed their 200 day moving averages in February and March, it became increasingly apparent that a lot of retail investors (and perhaps some institutional investors) were left under-invested while watching this recovery move from the sidelines. The U.S. stock ...

Finance Trends Letter

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