Commodities update: Soybean, Wheat, Corn

Quick update on agricultural commodities. News of possible land nationalization/reorganizing in Bolivia has me wondering what impact there might be on soybeans. Tensions still exist over Brazilian/Bolivian land disputes and may affect farmers working land in Bolivian lowlands bordering Brazil. From Bloomberg:

Brazilian farmers in Bolivia are concerned they may be the next target of a campaign by President Evo Morales to seize foreign assets.

``I'm very apprehensive,'' said Brazilian-born Ener Sanches, 46, who has 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) planted with soybeans and owns a fertilizer company in the southern city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. ``They are trying to pit one group against the other.''

There is a great deal of concern over gas disputes between Bolivia and its largest consumer of natural gas, Brazil. Now, a new source of tensions could emerge:

The second concern is illegal or undocumented occupation of Bolivian land, especially land within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of the Brazilian border, territory that Bolivia's constitution prohibits foreigners from owning, Colanzi said.

Brazilian farmers, who have helped make Brazil the world's second-largest soybean producer and exporter after the U.S., found it easy to move across the border and open up land in Bolivia.

According to Farm Futures news, the Chicago Board of Trade will launch a South American Soybean contract on Monday. South America produces over 50% of the world's soybeans.July soybean contract ended the day unchanged at $6.13 a bushel.

July Wheat ended up 9.4 cents at the CBOT to close at $401.4. Corn futures also closed higher, with the July corn contract up 11.2 cents to close at $2.58. Business Week reported an Agricultural Department study finds ethanol demand will push corn prices higher this year. News regarding wheat and soybeans were also included in the report.

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety . My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes . Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes 2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4.

Slate profiles Victor Niederhoffer

Slate's recent profile of writer/speculator, Vic Niederhoffer has been getting some attention from traders and finance types in recent days. I thought we'd take a look at it here too, to offer up some possible educational value from Vic's experiences with trading and loss. Here's an excerpt from Slate's profile of Victor Niederhoffer : " I've enjoyed getting your e-mails. It sounds like you've thought a lot about being wrong. Well, the reason you contacted me, to call a spade a spade, is that I'm sort of infamous for having made a big, notorious, terrible error not once but twice in my market career. Let's talk about those errors. The first was your investment in the Thai baht, which pretty much wiped you out when the Thai stock market crashed in 1997. I made so many errors there it's pathetic. I made one of my favorite errors: "The mouse with one hole is quickly cornered." That is key. There are certain decisions you make in li

William O'Neil Interview: How to Buy Winning Stocks

Investor's B usiness Daily founder and veteran stock trader, William O'Neil share d his trading methods and insights on buying winning stocks in an in-depth IBD radio interview. Here are some highlights from William O'Neil's interview with IBD: William O'Neil's interest in the stock market began when he started working as a young adult. "I say many times that I didn't get that much out of college. I didn't have much interest in the stock market until I graduated from college. When I got married, I had to look out into the future and get more serious. The investment world had some appeal and that's when I started studying it. I became a stock broker after I got out of the Air Force." He moved to Los Angeles and started work in a stock broker's office with twenty other guys. When their phone leads from ads didn't pan out, O'Neil would take the leads and drive down to visit the prospective customers in person.

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