Forum Post: Commodities Are Dreadful — and Have Almost No Place In Your Portfolio | Storify

http://storify.com/giseljanz/commodities-are-dreadful-and-have-almost-no-place#publicize The Tyler Group News Barcelona- One of the things I really hate about the current Wall Street environment is how so many people have been fooled into thinking that commodities are a necessary part of your asset allocation. I’ve been pretty hard on commodities over the years (see this detailed piece here). I think it’s mostly just a ruse to sell another group of products and I think it’s really dangerous. But even worse, I just think betting on commodities is fundamentally flawed thinking. Not only are you speculating in a zero sum game involving production-less input costs, but you’re directly betting against human ingenuity. I don’t like either of those bets. If one actually takes a look at the long-term real returns of commodities you realize they’re actually quite dreadful. Even if we cherry pick a decent period that includes a big boom like the last 20 years we still see pretty awful performance. Over the last 20 years commodities have returned just 1.6% per year over the last 20 years (see figure 1). That’s a real return of about MINUS 1%. I prefer to think of commodities as something that is an input or a means to helping us innovate. If you’re bullish on oil price dynamics you shouldn’t go buy barrels of oil and store them in a locker somewhere. You should find the companies who leverage the use of that commodity and will benefit by innovating through the use of that input. Don’t bet against innovation. Bet on it. I say all of this as I see the silver bubble (that I discussed back in 2011 when silver was 40% higher) come crashing down. Sensible portfolio construction starts with understanding the role of specific assets in the economy and how those various assets fit into your portfolio in particular ways. I don’t know why this theme of commodities as an asset class has taken off over the last 10 years, but it sure doesn’t seem to be helping anybody except those selling the idea…. The Tyler Group News Barcelona

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http://www.businessinsider.com/commodities-have-almost-no-place-in-your-portfolio-2013-4 Read Here: http://www.powershow.com/view/3ce477-MmFmN/The_Tyler_Group_News_Barcelona_Commodities_Are_Dreadful_and_Have_Almost_No_Place_In_Your_Portfolio_powerpoint_ppt_presentation