What $96 oil, $800 gold, a 100% foreclosure spike, and a $2.08 British pound mean to you
Posted by: in Stocks Money NewsFiled under: NovaStar Financial (NFI), Commodities, Oil, Housing
What a fantastic time to own oil, gold, or any currency other than the dollar! And what a wonderful world it must be for foreclosure lawyers! How can you profit? Buy non-dollar currencies, lock in your heating oil price, and consider shorting mortgage insurers.
The statistics are mind-numbingly awful. The price of oil hit a record $96 a barrel, up 300% from $24 in January 2001. Gold is near a record high at $800, the dollar is at record lows — for instance it takes $2.08 to buy a British pound. Housing, which has been tumbling from its peak in August 2006, is hurting too — with foreclosures up 100% in the last year. And the mortgage meltdown has led to big layoffs — my firm counts 70,087 finance layoffs by 42 companies so far this year.
There are three ways you can profit from this trend. First, you can buy currencies — like the pound and the Euro — which are getting stronger as the dollar weakens. Second, if you heat your house with oil, you can consider locking in a fixed price — because oil is clearly going to keep going up.
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