Agriculture: Rise as an investment.

Agriculture has returned to the forefront of investor portfolios with growing threats such as climate change and food security at the top of the global agenda. Now, more than ever, investments in primary staple foods such as Rice are receiving attention from governments, investors, traders and farmers

 The majority of all rice produced comes from Thailand, Vietnam, India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Myanmar/Burma. Asian farmers still account for 92-percent of the world's total rice production. More than 550 million MT of rice is produced annually around the globe.
Even as rice as a commodity is deeply associated with such a large number people, it continues to be a very thinly traded commodity with less than 8% of production entering global trade. In comparison, 10-12% of corn, around 18% of wheat and nearly 30% of soybean enter global markets. World rice trade is expected to surge 5% to 31.3 million MT in 2010 from 29.7 million MT in 2009.
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia are members of the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (Acmec), which carries out measures to boost border trade.
Among those measures is a contract farming scheme in which entrepreneurs can invest in farming in neighboring countries and import produce to their own countries without paying tariffs.
Laos also supports Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's plan to set up a Rice Trader Association among the Acmec members. It would stabilize rice prices, not attempt to collude in price-setting.
Each country has its own production methods and costs, so stabilizing prices might be difficult.
The Saudi Binladin Group’s $4.3 billion planned investment in Papua, east Indonesia, to develop rice fields has stalled because of problems acquiring land from local people
Saudi Arabia and other countries, including China, are acquiring farm land abroad as part of their strategy of achieving greater food security, following sharp increases in food prices in 2008.
An agriculture ministry official said Binladin is considering acquiring up to 2 million hectares of farmland in Papua to grow basmati rice, which is not popular in Indonesia.

Investment in Gold Stock

  Today gold does not freely circulate as everyday currency, but it is widely found in many investment and retirement portfolios. If you want to diversify your portfolio, you would want to invest in gold stock.

 Types

  There are two basic types of gold stock options with a great number of variations: puts and calls. The most popular option is the call option. Purchasing a call option on a gold stock gives you the right but not the obligation to purchase a specified number of shares of the underlying stock for a set price at any time prior to the expiration date. Owning a put option gives you the right to sell a specified number of shares of stock for a set price at any time prior to the expiration.


  Gold stocks are not gold - rather they are shares in gold mining companies. If the gold price rises, profits of a gold mining company should rise and as a result the share price should rise. There are many factors to take into account and it is not always the case that a share price will raise when the gold price increases. It is important to consider different factors which influence gold prices as well as on political, economic, nationalization or environmental risk.

 Gold stock options

  Stock options are a contract between two parties that expires at an agreed-upon time in the future. The contract purchaser is buying the right, but not the obligation, to buy a gold mining stock (a 'call' option) or sell (a 'put' option) a gold mining stock (the 'underlying') at a specific price, on or before the agreed-upon date, the date of expiration.

  Speculating in gold and other precious metals can produce spectacular results, but it can also result in dramatic losses. Investing in gold stocks or gold stock mutual funds spreads the risk around. For seasoned investors who want to have a stake in this potentially lucrative market but who also want to limit their liability, the answer might be stock options in gold.

Global Distressed Property

An examination of the figures shows that the real estate market is far from normal. Distressed sales totaled more than 1.2 million last year, a 25% increase from 2008 and a more than four fold rise from 2007. They made up 29% of all sales last year, up from 23% in 2008 and 6% in 2007. The average foreclosure discount was 25% in 2009, 22% in 2008 and 26% in 2007. ‘A normal market would show foreclosures accounting for less than 2% of sales
Fewer countries report an increase in distressed properties coming to market in Q3 than in Q2;
Property professionals in more countries are seeing growing enquiries into distressed listings from specialist funds
The outlook for future distress picked up with more countries seeing rising distress expectations compared to Q3
US and UK report greater levels of distress, whilst Russia, Hong Kong and Brazil report falling levels
Properties in default or scheduled for auction sold for an average discount of almost 15%, up from almost 14% in the previous quarter and down from 16% a year earlier. These homes are often sold in short sales, where lenders accept less than the outstanding loan amount for the property. Sales of properties either in default or headed for auction accounted for 12% of all sales.

If you are a private investor, looking to take advantage of the current market conditions for property investment, you have some cash to invest and you are seeking hugely discounted or distressed property sales that will give you cash-flow positive high yields, large future potential price gains or both.

Discounted Property Investments:

Highly discounted new-build developer stock and resale buy-to-let properties - apartments and houses

Access to bargain overseas investment properties from distressed or highly motivated sellers/ developers

High Yield Property Investments:

High income student investment property - new-build private halls of residence and traditional housing - the recession proof sector

High income UK holiday lets - a smart and tax-efficient investment and the top performer for the last decade.

a Review of Capital Alternatives

I’ll begin this article, by just simply wearing my heart on my sleeve. Good investment advice is hard to find!!!

Over the last century, investment advisers have morphed into commission chasing junkies that simply do not have their clients best interest at heart. This creates a very difficult environment, especially for the novice investors. Fund management companies charge an arm and a leg in management fees and many financial advisers are more concerned to steer your money into products which will pay them the best referral fees.

Granted, many government institutions in the US and Europe has done a great deal to address this gross imbalance and things has started to get a bit better, bit this kind of behaviour is still prevalent in the marketplace.

On this blog I will do my best to point out the sharks in the trade and to also give credit to the folks that really do a good job.

One of the ‘nice guys’ in the industry is a London based company called, Capital Alternatives.

These guys have been around for a good few years now and have firmly established a good presence in the market for alternative investments. So what makes them better than the others…?

First of all it goes without saying that the quality of their brokers is second to none. When I deal with someone I want to have an intelligent conversation on variables that affect the market. I personally expect a well-rounded broker that has a firm grasp on the broad picture and can therefore tailor advise accordingly. This is one area these guys excel at.

Secondly, and this is a huge issue for me, is transparency. Their updates to clients are both frequent and in-depth. The alternative market has a tendency to lack in this area, but a brokerage can make up for this in their level of service and frequency of updates. Capital Alternatives makes it happen and for that I am glad.

Lastly, is transaction charges. The market for alternative investments tends to be relatively ‘infant’ in its growth cycle and this can easily prompt many players to charge extortionate charges. With Capital Alternatives, their fees are competitive and often include no annual management fees. This frees up more opportunity for investors to take advantage of significant potential Return on Investment.

I will keep a close look at different companies, but can in the meantime highly recommend Capital Alternatives as a reputable organisation to deal with.

Agricultural market overview

Europe is largest market of organic produces in world and consumes around half of the world produce of organic production .EU is a net importer of cereals, oilseeds, potatoes and vegetables.

Within Europe, Germany is largest market for organic products with sales value of around 2.5 billion Euros ($2.3 billion (US)). On an average the per capita spending on organic produces in Europe was 23 euro.

Global grain production is falling at 7.5% annually, whilst global grain consumption is rising by 2.5% each year, enlarging the gap between supply and demand. If you factor into this that Wheat prices are at a 2 year high, with all our investors receiving dividends exceeding their initial expectation and you have a solid shippable investment.

So far this market has attracted funds from institutional investors who have invested £8 billion into agricultural land over recent years. Literally turning fund managers into farmers, as demand for this type of alternative investment is at an all time high and is only set to continue on its growth trajectory with anticipated ROI of 15 -22%

This leading alternative investment offers Excellent Financial Returns with structured exit strategies at 5 years, to institutional funds with projected capital appreciation of 261%

Commodity prices are often highly cyclical and dependent on various factors of supply and demand. Since June US wheat prices have increased by over 70%.

Over the past 30 years, the world's population has grown by more than 50 per cent to over 6 billion, and is expected to increase by the same proportion again by 2050. Yet the world's food supplies are failing to keep up. Many of the farms in developing countries produce small yields, and need help and more modern farming equipment to help them produce larger amounts of produce.

Investing in technology

From the individual to the largest organization, everyone today has to make investments in information technology. Technology is a sector well suited to venture capital investment, as it offers the potential for high growth and high returns.

There are various ways to invest in the technology area. Some brokerage houses do offer technology index funds that include a cross section of technology companies. The other method is simply to pick stocks from the technology sector that offer sustained growth, good value and potential for the future. Investing in Technology Stocks has been considered as high risk.

The list of products and services in the pipeline of small, medium and large companies is astounding. Within the field of technology is the corner stone of all the products is security software and services.  

The specific areas that appear in my opinion to be situated well for future growth are in

• health care related stocks,
• multi-media and graphic software,
• security software,
• Networking and communication devices and specialized areas of electronics.

 There are other categories, but these areas of technology are poised for future.

   Businesses make significant investments in technology--purchasing software, computers, networking tools and other components necessary to stay current, drive business and sustain their competitive stance. For five years the Internet has developed, and firms have largely begun to adopt its technologies. A few firms have hit Internet technologies hard, developing substantial expertise in their internal value networks for using, developing, and marketing their capabilities with these technologies. Firms have moved forward with developing firm web sites, intranet-based knowledge management projects and client-centered extranets. 


Technology has made information more available than ever before. Indeed, health informatics is a field that focuses on using technology to improve our quality of health care. An index of health-care companies in the S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent.

Technological development in the mobile marketplace as a whole is fast-paced and with patients rapidly adopting smart-phone technology and applications in their personal lives, it is only a matter of time before they come to expect the same capabilities and speed of service when they access healthcare services too, whether public or private.

Boston based private equity and venture capital investment firm, Summit Partners today announced that it has invested $100 million for a minority stake in AVAST Software, makers of the world’s most popular antivirus software.

Alternative Energy

Fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, are a non-renewable source of energy.

Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels

The stock market has a worrying message for the future. It suggests we may run out of oil a century before we have an alternative fuel ready to replace it.

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished)

  

       Seven of the most promising renewable energy technologies:

·        advanced bio fuels,

·        electric vehicles (EVs),

·        concentrated solar power (CSP),

·        solar photovoltaic (PV - solar panels),

·        onshore wind power,

·        offshore wind, and so-called "clean coal" through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) - and assesses their potential to make a market impact on cheaper, more conventional energy sources

Renewable energy sources like concentrated solar and photovoltaic solar systems are the most viable technologies likely to challenge the dominance of fossil fuel on the global energy scene, according to a report released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

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  Power generation overall increased 8% during 2010 and wind and hydro accounted for 20% of total power generation in the first 9 months. Also, 9 months report for 2010 shows a 54% increase in revenue from wind and hydropower.

 Fossil fuels are of great importance because they can burned (oxidized to carbon dioxide and water) producing significant amount of energy per unit weight. Nevertheless, investors do not expect the replacement of oil-based fuels with renewable for another 100 years. Investors put far more money into the traditional oil companies than into alternative energy companies. Therefore; investors believe that in the near future the traditional oil business is going to do better and to occupy a considerably larger share of the energy market than alternative-energy companies