My Current Commodity Futures Positions - 9/14/08

A special Blogging the Commodity Bull Market shout out to my good friend Lance, who works at a prominent New York investment bank.

Lance (name altered to protect the innocent) is a regular reader of our blog, though he is strictly forbidden from commenting whatsoever due to his professional ties.

Via a text message exchange we had today during the late NFL games, Lance provided me with some key insider info: "hope ur long oil pal! dump the dollar". Lance went on to recommned that I "buy the norwegian krona".

Though these text messages no doubt were sent after a beer or ten, we give a hearty salute to Lance. And armed with his information and insights, I have indeed covered my short British Pound position, preparing for the next flush of the dollar down the porcelain bowl.


A review of my trades from the week that was:

• Closed out my short British Pound position - twice - I closed out my two short BP positions last Sunday night when the dollar rally looked over. Then the dollar surprisingly bounced back, and I shorted the BP again - and then covered again tonight, after watching it pop up nearly 5 cents since Friday. Both the BP and the Dollar are flawed currencies circling the bowl - the question is, which will circle towards the bottom faster.
  

• Shorted Soybeans - Beans look like they may want to break down. My research is telling me that a good harvest will put plenty of beans on the market. I'll quickly exit if beans rally on bullish harvest news.

Other existing positions I've got:

• Long the Japanese Yen - So far, so good.
  

My wish list (waiting for an uptrend):

• Sugar
• Cotton
• Coffee
  
• Swiss Franc
• Natural Gas
  
• Silver

Open Positions

Date	Position	Qty	Month/Yr	Contract	Entry Price	Last Price	Profit/Loss
09/04/08	Long	1	DEC 08	Japanese Yen	0.9340	0.9455	$1,437.50
09/09/08	Short	1	NOV 08	Mini Soybeans	1168 1/4	1189	($207.50)
Net Profit/Loss On Open Positions:							$1,230.00

Account Balances
Current Cash Balance	$54,504.37
Open Trade Equity	$1,230.00
Total Equity	$55,734.37
Long Option Value	$0.00
Short Option Value	$0.00
Net Liquidating Value	$55,734.37

Cashed out: $20,000.00
Total value: $75,734.37

Weekly return: -7.2%
YTD return: -1.1%

***"Cash out" mostly means taxes, but lately I've also been using it to pay down my credit cards a bit. Why credit card debt? I'm financing a startup and trying to outpace my CC interest rate in the futures markets - kids, don't try this at home.