Commodity Futures Review - January 4, 2009

Now for the weekly review of our commodity futures positions - current as of January 4, 2009.

First, our top blog posts from the past week:

• Expert Commodity Picks for 2009: Jim Rogers and Marc Faber
• GoldMoney Review: Gold Climbs for 8th Straight Year
• Jim Rogers on Kudlow: We're going to have an inflationary nightmare

Our coverage of Marc Faber's recent interview on CNBC from December 1st continues to see a lot of traffic.

A review of our trades and positions from the previous week:

• Continued to hold one cocoa futures contract - down on the week, mostly due to a sharp Friday drop.

• Continued to hold one mini-gold futures contract. Gold was stuck in the mud for the week - though it did wrap up an 8th consecutive up year vs. the US dollar.

• Continued to hold one wheat futures contract - up a bit for the week. Looking to add on further strength.

• Bought one corn futures contract. This was an attempt to "pyramid" our grains position and diversify - in hindsight, looking at the charts of each, wheat looks stronger, and we should have added to that position before initiating this one.

• Bought one cotton futures contract - we LOVE cotton at these prices - as we've discussed with before in this space.

Commodities that appear quite beaten down - but we don't own them...yet...

• Sugar
• Coffee
• Natural Gas
• Silver
• Crude Oil

Open positions

Date	Position	Qty	Month/Yr	Contract	Entry Price	Last Price	Profit/Loss
12/29/08	Long	1	MAR 09	Corn	422 1/4	410	($612.50)
12/15/08	Long	1	MAR 09	Cocoa	2586	2506	($800.00)
12/31/08	Long	1	MAR 09	Cotton	48.52	48.90	$190.00
12/24/08	Long	1	MAR 09	Wheat	579 1/4	610	$1,537.50
12/15/08	Long	1	FEB 09	Mini Gold	836.6	877.3	$1,351.24
Net Profit/Loss On Open Positions							$1,666.24

Account Balances

Current Cash Balance	$47,887.81
Open Trade Equity	$1,666.24
Total Equity	$49,554.05
Long Option Value	$0.00
Short Option Value	$0.00
Net Liquidating Value	$49,554.05

---------------------------------------------
Cashed out: $20,000.00
Total value: $69,554.05
Weekly return: -2.5% *** since 1/1/09
YTD return: -2.5%

2008 return: -8%

***"Cash out" mostly means taxes, but lately we've also been using it for living expenses, and also to finance a cool new time management software startup that is starting to lift off - and was recently covered by the Sacramento Business Journal.