Commenting in my previous post, George from Fat Pitch Financials and Value Investing News asked if I knew of any investment plays on the rising food costs around the globe.
I basically don't -- except playing commodities related to food. There may be some common stocks, but I haven't come across any, though I haven't looked for any, either. I told George that some years ago Jim Rogers created his own commodity index which I believe includes agriculture and food products.
Rogers is interviewed in the current issue of Barron's:
Rogers, 65, doesn't run others' money these days, though an index he
developed in the late 1990s, the Rogers International Commodities
Index, has been licensed to some funds. Its cumulative return, from
inception in 1998 through the end of March, was more than 380%, versus
about 38% for the S&P 500.
I don't know the names of the funds, and whether they're ETFs, closed or open ended (let alone the account minimums).
I stress here that I'm not playing commodities. But anyone suddenly joining the bull crowd would probably be better off buying something like the Rogers index in a fund. Playing the futures game is certainly outside my tiny circle of competence.
My hunch is that the time to have jumped into this was several years ago. But hey, I could be wrong.
Look here:
http://www.elementsetn.com/ProductsPage.aspx
Posted by: appol | April 16, 2008 at 12:23 AM
John,
Rogers has his own Agg. ETF, symbol RJA. The difference between his index and others is his specific weighings. Further, he has stated the only way he buys agg. commodities is through this (RJA).
S.K.
Posted by: Shahin Khezri | April 16, 2008 at 10:47 AM
RJI is his total commodity index ETF.
Posted by: me | April 16, 2008 at 02:32 PM
Thanks for the feedback and links, gentlemen. Readers will hopefully find them of use.
Posted by: John | April 16, 2008 at 10:14 PM
John and gang,
Your comments reminded me of a few links I had saved on this topic. Here they are, hopefully this will provide a little added info on these ETFs and ETNs.
http://www.thestreet.com/s/trade-commodities-like-legend-jim-rogers/funds/etf/10387113.html?puc=_tscrss
http://seekingalpha.com/article/30369-commodity-etfs-and-etns
I have not traded or bought any of these products to date, so can't impart any first-hand experience on these.
You may also be interested in this recent post from my blog on rising food and agricultural commodity prices.
http://financetrends.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-rising-food-prices.html
Good reading!
Posted by: David | April 21, 2008 at 03:01 PM