Sunday, February 27, 2011

The preivious week: 'Power to the people' and oil spiked!

Dear Reader,

It has been an eventful week, hasn't it. Uprisings in Tunsia, Egypt, Libiya, Yemen etc. Basically, the whole Middle East is about to fold into chaos...

Is this good or bad for investments? Volatility is always good for short-term traders!

Main themes: Oil, Stocks, Agriculture, Gold, Silver.

The price of oil spiked more than 10%. People thought  the prices of agriculture are skyrocketing. Chaos ensued and investors sold aggresively wheat, corn, soybeans etc. 'Every cloud has a silver lining'
Stocks, especially in Europe, recorded heavy losses? How to play these events?

An obvious choice is oil companies who do not have large operations in the Middle East-> Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Lukoil, companies doing business in the canadaian oil sands. Gold is another excellent choice. When the world looks like it might end, people turned historically to gold. For the next couple of weeks, I think 'risk is back on'. Investors will flee risky assets as stocks, commodities and go to the safety of US and German government bonds. Here I should warn if states in the US are allowed to fail or countries in Europe default, even bonds will sell off aggresively. Agriculture will go down again. Everything depends on whether the Libiyan situation will be resolved soon and if Saudi Arabia is thrown in turmoil. An investment bank recently published an article, quoting a price for oil above $200 if the unrest spreads to Saudi  Arabia...

Personal view on the markets: Buy OIL in the form of futures or ETFs. Buy GOLD. Buy swiss franc.
Buy out of the money  put options (1 year until strike) on the S&P, DJIA and Nasdaq.
Sell Wheat, Corn, Soy beans.
The positions are with a time span of 1 week, since today.

Disclaimer: At the moment, I do not have any positions in oil, gold, wheat, corn, soy beans and their derivatives. I  have  neither any option trades on, nor have I bought swiss franc currency crosses, or stocks of the energy companies mentioned in the analysis! I do not plan to enter in the afore mentioned trades in the next 72 hours.
Petar Posledovich