Street Speculator

Remember Eddie Murphy in the comedy Trading Places? Murphy was given a job at a commodity brokerage company, Duke & Duke. This institution traded commodity contracts, or futures. In other words, they brought contracts in Orange Juice, Gold, Wheat, and other commodities for SPECULATORS.

Trading in commodities are highly volatile and extremely risky. A broker once told me that until I can predict when a drought is coming to the Midwest or when it will rain in Columbia, stay away from investing in commodities.

There is a way to cash in on the commodity market without the added risk. You can purchase the PHYSICAL commodity itself. That’s right, Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum bars and others. The prices are set by the public market and these metals are sold by the ounce.

Gold ($841/ounce) Silver ($13.66/ounce)

Platinum ($1,431/ounce). Prices as of 8.21.08

You can purchase these commodity products at one of the following vendors:

KITCO Bullion dealers (kitco.com) and Northwest Territorial Mint (bullion.nwtmint.com). We promote commodity metals purchasing today as an alternative to cash.

Hypothetically, suppose the value of the U.S. dollar continues to drop and/or becomes worthless (It can happen). You would then need something of value with which to be able to purchase, trade, barter, etc… All countries accept and sell physical commodities. The value of the commodity is based on the market price, the price set by the exchanges on that particular day (NYMEX, CME Group). The SPECULATORS recommend you start to purchase the physical commodities. Keep then in a safe deposit box and buy insurance on each physical “bar” or “coin” as well. NOTE: Warren Buffet purchased over $500 million in about 129 million ounces of silver in 1999.

Publicly Traded Commodities

Gold, Silver, Copper, Oil, Wheat, Sugar, Coffee, Cocoa, Lean Hogs (?), Pork Bellies, Natural Gas, Uranium, Platinum, Nickel, Aluminum

If you want to be more conservative in commodity purchases, you can also buy a commodity based mutual fund. Some examples include the Oppenheimer Real Asset Fund, Pimco Commodity Real Return Fund, Rogers Raw Materials Fund.

Disclaimer: With any investment, do your research and analysis before buying.