Futures For You  |  SEP 2006

Futures For You by Dan O’Neil

Stocks & Commodities V. 24:9 (61): Futures For You by Dan O’Neil INSIDE THE FUTURES WORLD Want to learn how the futures markets really work? Dan O’Neil, a principal at online futures and forex broker XPRESSTRADE (www.xpresstrade.com), responds to your questions about today’s futures markets. To submit a question, post your question to our website at http://Message-Boards.Traders.com. Answers will be posted there, and selected questions will appear in a future issue of S&C. ABANDON SHIP? Many commodity markets have enjoyed fabulous bull runs. More recently, though, the rallies have sputtered, and some prices have fallen back to Earth. Was this a commodities bubble, and are we near the end of the boom? Nobody likes to hold on too long in any market that’s heading down. Yet without getting into any specific price forecasts, I would say that investors rethinking the viability of commodities in light of recent downturns in a few signature markets would do well to look at the big picture and consider this actually might be the right time to buy. Of course, to begin with, there’s no sense in trying to deny it. For all of the congratulations that many major commodities have enjoyed from traders over the past couple of years amid sharply rising prices, it’s only fair to accept the converse when the bull appears to have been neutered.

by Dan O’Neil