Jim Rogers' new book, "Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World's Best Market" is ready for shipment today on Amazon. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Here is a quote from the inside flap...

"In Hot Commodities, Rogers offers the lowdown on the most lucrative markets for today and tomorrow. In 1998, gliding under the radar, a bull market in commodities began. Rogers thinks it’s going to continue for at least fifteen years–and he’s put his money where his mouth is: In 1998, he started his own commodities index fund. It’s up 165% since then, with more than $200 million invested, and it’s the single-best performing index fund in the world in any asset class."

With the success of GLD, you're going to see more commodity ETFs. Silver should be coming soon and, it is my understanding, that foreign currencies will be next. Some other commodities, like oil for example, will be slower because of storage issues.

Larry

Larrt --- I heard today on CNBC that Maria is going to interview Jim Rogers this wked. If anyone hears when please post it.

We haven't had a conspiracy theory lately, so here's one to ponder (or laugh at).

What if Jim bought commodities cheap in 1998, writes a book about how great they are, waits for suckers to buy and push up the price, then liquidates his holdings. Wow, what an awesome global pump-and-dump.

Steve

This is not necesarily a conspiracy theory but if you want to be a contrarian then you could make the case for commodities not doing so well this year. I'm starting to hear a lot about commodities lately. CNBC had a feature yesterday about trading commodities futures and now we have Rogers book which I'm sure will get a lot of attention. As I'm writing this Bob Pisani is talking about commodities. After doing very well for 3 years I'm wondering if we're not due for a down year in commodities. I was wondering what kind of investment opportunities might be had related to the recent catastrophe. The first thing that comes to mind is companies involved in restoring water supplies and sanitation to the region. Larry or anybody else know of any waste removal or water stocks that might be operating in that area?

Gary

Gary,

Water companies stand to benefit. The fundamentals were already in place for a water shortage similar to oil. But tsunami has polluted fresh-water supplies. Some names that you may want to consider are WTR, PNR, CWT, AWR, SWWC.

Larry

gary,

also look at - GGG, IR, GDI, PH, UU, SBS, & VE.

-ja

Joe,
What kind of businesses are these companies? Water, waste management, are they international or US companies likely to get the bid for cleanup in SE Asia.

Gary

Just saw the Jim Rogers interview by Maria Bartiromo. Quick run down. Rogers thinks the market will be down this year, thinks commodities are in a 15-20 year bull market, sugar and orange juice are current buys. He also said that he thinks China will have a hard landing sometime this year and that will be the time to buy China. He thinks the fed's policy is doomed to destroy the dollar. Interest rates are going up and Oh yeah he's short housing stocks.

Gary

Speaking of shorting stocks, I just completed one of my periodic buying sprees on Amazon. One of the books I ordered is one on shorting stocks by none other than William O'Neil. That one surprised me because O'Neil has always recommended against shorting stocks for the individual investor. It will be interesting to see what he has to say.

Larry

gary,

UU, SBS & VE are in the Utility-Water Supply sector.

GGG, IR, GDI & PH are in Machinery-General Industrial sector…
(same as PNR on larry’s list).

For a thumb-nail account of the business go to bigcharts.com, type in the stock symbol, then click “profile”.

-ja

Jim--- Would you let me know the title of the book on shorting by William O'Neil? Bill

How to Make Money Selling Stocks Short, William O'Neil

Paperback: 195 pages
Publisher: Wiley (December 17, 2004)
ISBN: 0471710490

Product Description:
There are two sides to everything, except the stock market. In the stock market there is only one side—the right side. In certain market conditions, selling short can put you on the right side, but it takes real knowledge and market know-how as well as a lot of courage to assume a short position.

The mechanics of short selling are relatively simple, yet virtually no one, including most professionals, knows how to sell short correctly. In How to Make Money Selling Stocks Short, William J. O'Neil offers you the information needed to pursue an effective short selling strategy, and shows you—with detailed, annotated charts—how to make the moves that will ultimately take you in the right direction.

From learning how to set price limits to timing your short sales, the simple and timeless advice found within these pages will keep you focused on the task at hand and let you trade with the utmost confidence.