All Posts Tagged With: "speculators"

Investing in Options Speculation

Sensible Speculation and Super Leverage

I was very fortunate to join my dad, Steve Sarnoff, as co-editor of Options Hotline in 1995, and I worked closely with him for four years. If you aren’t familiar with my dad, he’s an author of more than 60 books, editor of several newsletters, and what the New York Times called the “Dean of Commodities Analysts.”

I laugh when I think back about those times because my dad — he really loved Options Hotline, and he would say to me, “Sonny, they’re the only one’s that have super leverage and it’s the only sensible way to…

9Sep2008 | The Penny Sleuth | Comments Off | Continued

Lovable, Moronic Capitalists

We’re still here, listening to presentations by various financial analysts…trying to make sense out of things…and reporting to you directly from the floor of the Vancouver investing conference.

Up on stage, our old friend Paul van Eeden is explaining why the price of gold may be overpriced.

“Gold is money,” says Paul, “and almost only money.” So, you can forget supply and demand. To figure out what the price of gold should be, simply look at what it will buy, in comparison to other currencies. The only time gold leaves its “theoretical value” – as measured by what it will buy –…

27Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | Continued

Visitors from the Planet Thrift

Oh dear reader! This morning, we are practically panting…

The world economy is slowing down. The global financial system is falling apart.

The whole situation is a mess…a disaster for investors…a catastrophe for homeowners…a Waterloo for the financial industry. But it is God’s gift to us.

What fun it is to read the paper! So much nonsense! So many clowns! Such drivel…such claptrap…everything is working out just as we expected.

We had to put down our copy of the Financial Times this morning. We were afraid of internal hemorrhage. Besides, our eyes were watering so much we could barely see…

First…there is Ben Bernanke on…

17Jul2008 | Daily Reckoning | Comments Off | Continued

Are “Speculators” Causing the Oil Price Rise?

“How much of the oil price rise is due to speculation?”

Blaming “speculators” for rising oil prices is nothing but cheap demagogy.

Speculators are speculating because there is something about which to speculate. (Let me thank my sixth-grade English instructor for teaching me how to compose that sentence.)

Remember when oil ran up back in 1979 and 1980, when the entire Iranian oil industry collapsed in the wake of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution? About 5 million barrels of oil per day simply left the world marketplace. It was gone — poof! Not there. No tankers.

Even though 5 million barrels went away, people could…

9Jul2008 | Energy and Oil | Comments Off | Continued

Oil Speculation: It’s the Energy, Stupid

With the price of oil doubling in the past year, there are more fingers being pointed than solutions being offered. Unfortunately, one of the biggest “culprits” garnering much of the blame has been the oil speculators. Congress has decided to make them the scapegoat for our energy concerns, and unfortunately many under-educated members of the public are beginning to lap it up.

Speculators are speculating because there is something about which to speculate. (Let me thank my sixth-grade English instructor for teaching me how to compose that sentence.)

Remember when oil ran up back in 1979 and 1980, when the entire…

9Jul2008 | Whiskey and Gunpowder | Comments Off | Continued

Speculators, again

Another week, another round of blaming “speculators” for high oil prices.

The latest luminary to weigh in is the former Saudi Arabian oil minister Sheikh Ahmed Yamani. (Yes, he’s still alive.)

He says the situation today is far different than it was during his heyday in the 1970s: “Now it is because of problems with the price-setting system in the futures market. Traders buy and sell depending on rumours, not supply and demand. So much money is flowing into the market, it’s almost like gambling.” Clearly, Yamani is not on board with Sadad al-Husseini, the former Saudi Aramco official who’s expressed…

8Jul2008 | Desidooru Saloon | Comments Off | Continued
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