Farm bureau survey

[rockpile]

Hopper, in my MF's I have a breakdown of every
individual investment and a history of their
performance. And I am given options to move out
of the pigs and speculate on better looking choices.
My policy though is never liquidate at a loss, break
even at worst. I never put a dollar in Bre-ex, Nortel,
Rim nor Enron. If it sounds to good to be true - it
is! Your RESPs sound like what I did for my kids
when they were born back in the 70's. There were
no RESPs back then but there were private
foundations who promised you the world. In the
end, we about broke even. As a balance, we bought
CSBs also and that's what paid the schooling. Not a
good option right now.
Cott, not sure who you are asking. I agree with what
you just said but now we're getting into some
serious macro-economics here. 35$ bus. wheat -
never. You overlook the influence of politicians. In
the 70's when inflation took off, commodity prices
took off and food prices grew, the Govt brought in
wage and price controls thanks to Beryl Plumbtree.
And it would happen again, because more eaters
vote than growers. And all politicians are about
getting re-elected. This really happened, and along
with the embargo on Russia over the Afghanistan
invasion (oh the irony), and it really worked. Thanks
for your comments, a day without learning
something new and important is a day completely
wasted.

[LEP]

Cotton we will never wheat will never be $35 per
bushel.

Since the 1920's grain prices have dropped 2 % a
year in real terms. Farmers were able to offset that
by gradually increasing the size of their farm by 2%
or more.

Agriculture is the same as any commodity business
in the world. We have to compete with the lowest
priced seller of wheat in the world.

We may be able to differentiate our wheat from the
Black Sea "fire sale" wheat on gluten quality or
protein but the lowest price sets the base price
from which everyone starts from.

If they ever get their shit together in the baltics,
where they can grow a decent crop and get it to
market in a timely manner we are screwed.

North America isn't even close to the lowest cost
producer.

[cottonpicken]

We'll see.

[farmaholic]

Cottonpicken; How long do you think it will take before we see 35$ wheat? If and when it does get there, I'm sure all those sucking on the Ag tit will take their share as well. Could you imagine what fert will be worth!!

[AllisWD45]

Cotton. If you see 35$ wheat in the future will it not be
all relative . What would a chart for fertilizer to gold
etc tell us. I imagine the same thing?

[cottonpicken]

Excatly the same thing,we are few years away.

[Hopperbin]

Not sure why wheat cannot hit 35 dollars per bushel some day soon all it takes is a temporary shortage. 35 of course is not sustainable in the short term. Cotton sees an increasing amount of mouths to feed, less increases in farmable acres, not enough new genetics, shortage of fertilizer, a few crop failures somewhere, and people willing to pay 35 dollars. Cottons comparison to gold price is his way of convincing himself that the world will pay.

Rockpile a mutual fund investment gives you a pie chart showing the different sectors and percentage in each sector. Does not tell you how much the investors take of your money for running the fund. Its not done for nothing. I guess I just like to know where my money is. I guess if one has half million in Mutuals and the fund managers are taking 3 percent that is 15,000 dollars up in smoke every year. That amount of money would hire some pretty good investment advice.

[cottonpicken]

No.

It is a currency event.

How many zimbabwe dollars is a bushel of wheat?

Does this metaphor help?

This is about the purchasing power of a dollar.

Gold is just something people picked a few
thousand years ago as the yard stick to measure
things against.

Copper works just as well.... except if you want
100million worth which would be a few warehouses
of copper or a suitcase of gold.

If there are more dollars(units) of any currency
prices rises...this is econ 101.

As far as mutual funds all fees are straight forward
and up front,bench marks against the s&p,load,no
load,etc,etc.

As far as what the fund is in,the top holdings
should be specific and on the funds website.

[farmaholic]

Cotton: I value your contribution to posts and feel I can learn from you. All I ask is please be more thourough in your explanations, you know what your talking about but others, like myself, may have trouble following. Sometimes it takes more than one sentence to get a point across. I hope there is no offence taken. Thanks

[cottonpicken]

Non taken,i try get my point across in as few as words
as possible for the sake of convinience.