Sacandaga

60 Minutes on Oil: Did Anyone Verify Anything?

Answer:
The distinction isn't between equities and commodities. There are speculators in both. The distinction within commodities is between principals -- those who legitimately rely on the markets to hedge their exposure to price changes in commodities they actually produce or consume -- and the rest of you sleazebags, who claim your are creating liquidity, but actually create only turbidity. And lots of pain for lots of ordinary people.


On Jan 12 11:22 AM OldLimey wrote:

> Here's a question pitched for maximum 'thumbs down': Why is it that
> folks who trade in oil and its derivatives are 'speculators' and
> folks who trade in equities are 'investors'?
>
> Does it not occur to anybody that trading shares on a secondary market
> - as opposed to buying an IPO - invests nothing new into the company
> concerned? To rant against somebody who invests in oil is as meaningless
> as ranting against the people who bid stock indices (or Treasuries?)
> up to unsustainable highs and leave the wider economy to pick up
> the pieces from the ensuing crash. Pretty much everybody reading
> SA is a speculator whether or not they like to think of themselves
> as such, insofar as most of us aim to ride a chosen asset class as
> high as it will go and get out before it starts to reverse. If that's
> unacceptable to some readers, best idea would be to elect a government
> that will change the rules we all freely play by. Maybe you have
> just done that - but I rather doubt it. Better still, elect a government
> that won't debase the fiat currency.