What about Euros - recently gone from 1.38 to around 1.41

Two years ago it was around 1.14! How's that for making money for nothing!

Expect some retracement, of course, once the panic subsides. Precious metals can be tricky, just like investments in mine companies. Gold fluctuates a lot.....

As far as Saudi, there is a long history there. Economic research shows that the Saudis have "a lot of US dollars." They would lose a considerable amount of value if they suddenly went to Euros. Remember - oil is bought and sold in US dollars. Just think about the currency conversions on that alone!

The reason that the Saudis didn't cut their prime rate was to show THEIR displeasure with the US cutting our prime rate.

Recession comment: Just my humble opinion from the outside looking in...Recessions happen, we're overdue. China's GDP and demand for everything from oil to metals etc. will slow down once they have completed everything they have to to look good for the olympics. Politicians in power will spend and do all they can ahead of an election. After that the party in power needs to cut the expenses in their earlier years so that anger and memories will fade later on ahead of the next election. There are so many unsold homes in the US now that not one needs to be built for a year before unsold inventory gets used up. The US economy is driven 70% by consumer spending - where does that $ come from when you can't borrow more $ against the value of your home because the house price has stagnated or gone down? Look at housing starts over the past 50 years - they last peaked at 2 million, now down to 1.5; every other time they get down below a million, there has been a recession. Hey, it may not happen, but don't use patriotism to put your head in the sand - just be prudent - pay off some of your credit cards!

"Live within you means" - something that can prove to be difficult for the Super Size It nation.

Gold and silver both good for barter

Oil & Gold Price Surprise?

By Peter Way
Block Traders Oil & Gold Monitor




The U.S. dollar’s sharp decline has kicked the commodity bull market into overdrive. And gold and oil investors are especially happy. Crude recently hit a new all-time high of $84.10 per barrel and gold traded as high as $737 an ounce – the highest price for the metal since the inflationary days of the Carter administration, as displayed by the graph below.


So what lies ahead? More record highs for gold and oil? Most likely… according to the outlook from my highly reliable sources.

I get my forecasts from the bets being made by oil traders hedging their risks. The big players in the crude oil futures pits were expecting $80+ a barrel prices weeks ago, when oil had fallen back close to $70.

The run to record highs for crude oil also has also brought boom times to the myriad companies that drill, ship, store, and refine crude oil – as well as for the services companies that do everything from underwater construction to seismic mapping and oilfield maintenance.

There have been wild swings in both crude oil itself and the share prices of companies that benefit when the prices are high.

That kind of misdirection provides great investment opportunities for alert investors - like us.

When stock prices overreact, in either direction,they often present a year’s growth in a matter of days or weeks. On the downside are buying opportunities, and on the upside are quickly-reached sell targets.

Since the last issue of Block Traders Oil & Gold Monitor, my previous recommendations have produced a cornucopia of returns. The least productive of these provided profits at an annual rate of +329%, and most are measured in 4 digits or more.

If I haven’t got you to embrace short-term investing and to give up long-term speculation, what does it take?

I recognize you have had years of indoctrination by the investment establishment, to follow a philosophy that is good for them – but maybe not for you.

Special Offer: As the economy hits the skids, smart investors are turning to oil and gold. Veteran analyst Peter Way reveals how to invest like the hedge funds do.

Many investors find it hard to put the notion of short-term opportunity into balance with a long-term risk penalty. One of our associates suggested this illustration:

Take a year’s worst losses using our short-term approach, and net them against the best gains consuming a year’s time and see if there is anything left on the plus side.

When we do that with closeouts of the Block Traders Oil & Gold Monitor’s recommendations during the year’s past 24 issues, here’s what it shows:

Worst losses: 4 held 63 days each, for a total loss of –109.3% (252 market days in a year)


Best Gains: 37 held a total of 252 days, totaling +614.2% in gains


Net result: + 503.7% of gains
That’s right, at the worst the ratio of this past year’s gains to losses is over 5 ½ times as much profit as loss.

There’s no trick here in computation or misdirection in what to look at. Where your intuition deceives you is in under-recognizing the importance of TIME in the rate of return calculation. And rate of return is how the score is kept.

The next objection of the investment establishment is likely to be:

But are there enough timely opportunities to put together a string of investments to take advantage of those returns?

During the year I identified 502 places and times to put your money to work in Oil patch and Gold stocks. There were more than 20 recommendations per issue, with an average holding period of 36 days, or longer than between three issues.

But do you want (or need) to turn over 20 holdings in your portfolio every two weeks? The history says you might want to sell and re-buy things about once in a month and a half, but not all at the same time, most likely.

With 20 candidates an issue, that easily supports a portfolio of as many as 30 holdings. More than enough for ample diversification.

If you could have used them all, closed out the recommendations that made their targets on the day they did, and marked the rest to the 8/31/07 market, your rate of return would be +53.5%.

You would have realized 71 losses and you would have had gains from over 4 times as many winners, 289,secure in your pocket at this moment.

Participants may not use the forums to post or transmit advertisements or commercial solicitations of any kind.

If your investments were making 300 to 500% returns somehow I don't think you would need to advertise ANY kind of service.

For thoes interested; gold is up almost $100 per ounce over the past 30 days and off to a good start today opening up $9.00 over yesterdays close. Silver seems to be following suit.

Gold contract futures for December doubled this morning in the 1st hour of trading.

On a positive note, only for thoes interested, Gold closed at $765.00 per ounce. If you had bought gold last Aug at $648, today that would net you $11,700 (at 100 oz} purchase. Prices reflect not depression but inflation. Its not too late !!! Look at the Futures.

Do you own a gold mine, Ernie?