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Politics : Welcome to Slider's Dugout -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (21182)	3/4/2010 10:51:14 AM
From: SliderOnTheBlack	4 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50359

re: Agricultural ETFs... I look to the agricultural ETF's for a little diversification away from gold and pm stocks. Here's a one year chart on the Agri ETF/ETNs vs. the dollar, gold, and TIPs. Not the leverage to a weak dollar of the HUI/GDX, but respectable returns... Tradingwise, they peaked a month later than gold, hitting their highs at the end of December, then pulled back into January on US Dollar strength, bottoming in February, and are turning up again here... Over the last year they've traded in an approximate 20% trading range, so they don't have the high-beta volatility of the metals, or individual pm stocks. As a group, they're never going to outperform PM's as an anti-dollar trade over any extended period of time. Individual commodities - yes, as a group - no. Tradingwise, you can pick and choose them based on the weighting they carry to individual commodities. The GRU ETN for example, has a 47% weighting to wheat, so if you prefer to trade ETF/ETNs instead of commodity futures, you can pick an ETF with heavier weighting to your desired commodity play. If you're looking for a little diversification and a place to park some cash while maintaining negative US dollar correlation, they're worth a look, especially on pullbacks. SOTB PS: And don't ignore TIP as place to park cash. A nice solid, steady +10% return over the last year, and a lot less volatility than the Agri ETF & ETNs. PPS: You can buy options (sell puts etc.)to enhance your returns on both TIP and DBA.