You might have heard it, or maybe not. Why is copper going up? In our local paper it is because the Chinese are moving towards currency diversification.
Eine Erklärung für dieses merkwürdige Verhalten lautet: Die Kupfer-Hamsterkäufe dienen gar nicht dem Werk-, sondern dem Finanzplatz. «China ist aufgewacht», sagt Nobu Su vom Logistikunternehmen TMT dem «Telegraph»: «Die Chinesen kaufen Rohstoffe ein, weil dies eine sehr vernünftige Anlage für ihre Devisenreserven von 1’900 Milliarden Dollar ist.» Mit anderen Worten: China setzt auf eine Art Kupferstandard, um massive Verluste auf seinen Dollarreserven zu vermeiden.
It seems that the Chinese are not doing a currency diversification, and are not buying gold. They are buying copper. And that leads to wonder about something my brother told me three years ago with platinum. He said “Christian don’t invest in gold or silver, buy a commodity that can be used.” I never forgot that. You have to understand that my brother lives in Russia and they are as much affected by currencies as everybody else.
I actually did some commodities plays, and last week completely moved out of commodities (with some nice gains). Though I wonder if it is not time to move back again. The only thing that I want to figure out is how. I don’t want to play ETF’s, and don’t want to play futures. I think I prefer the route China is taking, but is that even feasible for a single investor.