Commodity HQ: A Brief 2,000-Year History Of Silver Prices

Silver has always been the redheaded stepchild of gold throughout human history. While its beauty, scarcity and utility have certainly been appreciated since pre-history, silver just isn’t as rare as gold and has never been esteemed as highly. For much of history, though, silver has been money. While the average laborer (or peasant) probably never saw a single gold coin in their hands in their lifetime, silver money was a different story.

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http://commodityhq.com/2012/a-brief-2000-year-history-of-silver-prices/

Commodity HQ: 5 Of The Biggest Oil Finds In History

Oil makes the world go ’round, and finding more oil is one of the principal goals of multinational energy giants like Exxon Mobil (XOM), British Petroleum (BP) and Chevron (CVX). Unfortunately, it has become harder and harder to find fields that really move the needle for corporate or national reserve totals. Nevertheless, just because it is difficult does not mean it is impossible, and investors can look back to some notable successes in the history of the oil industry.

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5 Of The Biggest Oil Finds In History

Commodity HQ: A Deeper Look At Iran's Commodity Industry

Iran is quite possibly one of the best-known and least-known countries in the world for American investors. Tense, if not outright hostile, relations between Iran and many Western countries have kept it in the news, but relatively few investors seem to appreciate Iran’s size, demographics (it’s a very young country), and economic prospects. In recent years sanctions have had a massive impact on Iran’s economy, but it remains a major player within OPEC and in the global energy market.

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A Deeper Look At Iran's Commodity Industry

Commodity HQ: A Deeper Look At Australia's Commodity Industry

One of the wealthiest countries in the world, and the richest in Asia in GDP per capita terms, Australia is an unusual mix of a modern market economy with a large commodities-driven export infrastructure. Despite the influx of wealth created by its natural resources, Australia has never been particularly successful in developing a large manufacturing base. What’s more, the country has run large and persistent current account deficits for over a half-century. Nevertheless, Australia has very significant and efficient mining and agricultural sectors, and ranks highly in the world in many categories.

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A Deeper Look At Australia's Commodity Industry

Commodity HQ: A Deeper Look At China's Commodity Industry

Although the geographical size of China is perhaps not that difficult for North Americans to appreciate, their population is another matter. As China has become the second-largest economy in the world, it is without question transformed into an enormous force in the world’s commodity markets; so much so, in fact, that the recent commodity supercycle is now generally seen as a byproduct of China’s emergence.

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A Deeper Look At China's Commodity Industry

Commodity HQ: A Deeper Look At South Africa's Commodity Industry

South Africa is the largest economy of Africa, and it accounts for almost one-quarter of the continent’s GDP. The path to this status has not been an easy one, however, as the country languished under sanctions in the 1980s tied to the government’s apartheid policies. While South Africa has a relatively well-developed manufacturing sector by the standards of African economies (and developing economies in general), a meaningful percentage of the country’s economy still revolves around commodities.

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http://commodityhq.com/2012/a-deeper-look-at-south-africas-commodity-industry/

Commodity HQ: Can Commodity ETFs Hedge Your Everyday Expenses?

Although the concept of “hedging” has been stretched, abused, and otherwise manipulated over the years, it is nevertheless a very important process for many companies. Commodity producers use forwards and futures contracts to help ensure a certain level of cash flow, and corporate commodity consumers use hedging to help control costs. So here’s a thought – can regular people use commodity investment products like ETFs to hedge some of their everyday costs of living?

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http://commodityhq.com/2012/can-commodity-etfs-hedge-your-everyday-expenses/

Commodity HQ: GDX vs. SIL vs. CU - How They've Performed So Far In 2012

It has been an interesting year for investors and traders focused on the metals. While ongoing economic uncertainty and recent additional monetary stimulus from the Fed has kept gold in the news, silver has quietly had a strong run as well. Amidst that uncertainty, industrial metals like copper have not done nearly so well.



What has that background meant for the leading metal miner ETFs?

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http://commodityhq.com/2012/gdx-vs-sil-vs-cu-how-theyve-performed-so-far-in-2012/

Commodity HQ: Gold Stocks To Play QE3

With QE3 now an announced fact, gold has come back into the spotlight. While the actual historical performance of gold as an inflation hedge is more mixed than some goldbugs realize, the reality is that gold has done pretty well during most prior periods of monetary stimulus. Moreover, with the ongoing uncertainty regarding the economic health and future of Europe, the United States, Japan and China, gold’s demonstrated value as a hedge against uncertainty may also come into play.



Investors have a variety of ways to use gold to enhance or secure the performance of their portfolio. Here are five names to consider.

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http://commodityhq.com/2012/gold-stocks-to-play-qe3/

Commodity HQ: The Difference Between Forwards And Futures

While commodities have enjoyed a renaissance of sorts over the past ten years, they are still somewhat outside the comfort zone of most investors. Part of that may be due to the perception that commodities are riskier, but some of it may be because of the unfamiliarity with the instruments and terms that make up the market. To cite just one example, futures and forward contracts (also called “forwards”) are very popular instruments among commodity investors, but very different in their fundamental natures.

Please read more here:
http://commodityhq.com/2012/the-difference-between-forwards-and-futures/

Commodity HQ: A Deeper Look At Australia's Commodity Industry

One of the wealthiest countries in the world, and the richest in Asia in GDP per capita terms, Australia is an unusual mix of a modern market economy with a large commodities-driven export infrastructure. Despite the influx of wealth created by its natural resources, Australia has never been particularly successful in developing a large manufacturing base. What’s more, the country has run large and persistent current account deficits for over a half-century. Nevertheless, Australia has very significant and efficient mining and agricultural sectors, and ranks highly in the world in many categories.

To read more, please click the link:
http://commodityhq.com/2012/a-deeper-look-at-australias-commodity-industry/