You are getting ready to enter the exciting world of investments. Stocks and bonds are just so much paper and pixels, you want to get your hands on the real deal, something of the Earth that you could reach out and touch if you wanted to. It’s commodities you are after!
You can check this site for an investment menu and other great tools to help you start your journey. Commodities are tricky, and learning their ancient ways will be a challenge!
Let’s begin by looking at what exactly defines a commodity: Commodities are comprised of goods and raw materials on the global market, things like metals and grains. They have an effect on our everyday lives, even if we aren’t Investors.
The basic commodities are as follows:
Metals – The first thing that popped into your head was gold, right? Copper, silver, and platinum, along with others. In effect, anything shiny and hard mined from the Earth for its value.
Agricultural – There are basically three main branches to this tree, and wood is actually one of them.
-Natural Materials like lumber, cotton, and rubber.
-Drinks, which are comprised of coffee (the new ‘black gold’) sugar, cocoa, and fruits for juice.
-Grains, such as wheat, soybeans, rye, rice, oats, barley, and corn.
-Meat Products like cattle, pork, chicken, and seafood.
Energy – This category includes crude oil, heating oil, natural gas, and petrol.
Another, newer commodity creating a space in the marketplace is Robotics.
So, what are the best commodities investments to get started with?
Gold – Nothing glitters like it, there’s just something about this metal that makes us desire it with some kind of primaeval passion, and historically men have stopped at nothing to acquire it! An often overlooked great advantage it has over other commodities is the fact that it is eternal, it never gets used up or consumed! Yes, making a profit on it can be tricky, but once you have it you have it forever.
Crude Oil – The original ‘black gold’, despite competition from new energy sources, it’s still the king of the highway. I can only imagine the look of awe on the faces of the people who happened to strike oil on their land as that crude bubbled up from the ground… There are some big disadvantages of course, the prices tend to fluctuate with the whims of the political seasons, and various oil-producing nations love to strategically interrupt production, plus the fact that when it runs dry, it’s gone forever! But, just think about that day, and how much the last drops of it will be worth to a world that must go without.
Coffee – The bean has rooted itself firmly in the global economy thanks to humanity’s literal thirst for its aromatic and uplifting brew. From its humble beginnings in ancient Ethiopia to a worldwide titan of the marketplace, coffee only looks to grow more valuable as we produce more college students with final papers to finish by morning.
