Articles for: Trading

It has been a dramatic few weeks on global stock markets. The impact of the credit crunch and years of easy debt, that is simply not available now, is really starting to hit home.

It is times like this when many traders are apt to ‘throw out the baby with the bath water’. Or in another manner of speech they ‘throw’ in the towel.

Well much has happened in the last week and if I was writing as I did last week on the mother of all share indices – the DOW – I would probably have taken an even harsher view.

And yes, I might add, we would like it to get better. So true – but we do have to take what the market dishes out.

After rallying strongly for most of 2007, the British pound (BP-SpotV in Profitsource) copped a beating over November and December, falling over 1500 points to the current lows (in early January).

My recent articles have been focused on the US bond markets and how the prevailing interest rate direction will affect mortgages as well as the continuing threat of the sub-prime credit crunch.

The Scottish traditional ‘Will ye no come back again’ that laments the prospect that Bonnie Charlie may not return reminds me of metals.

Markets are tough right now – an understatement you might say. So what to do?

Bonds are debt instruments that pay owners semi-annual interest payments.

Metal prices have risen at an extraordinary rate in recent years. You can see from the weekly chart below that prices have risen five-fold in less than five years for Hi Grade copper, a benchmark metal.