Commodities Crash: Stocks that Have Erased QE2 gains

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.)

In Tuesday’s statement on monetary policy, the Federal Reserve decided to reassure markets that interest rates are likely to stay at “exceptionally low levels” at least through the middle of 2013…{snip}…This dramatic change in the language to lock the Fed into very loose monetary policy for at least another two years was yet one more reminder of why I am focused on using a crash in commodities as a golden opportunity to build out a portfolio in physical assets. (See “Preparing for Profits in a Resource-Constrained World” for an explanation of the approach).

The strategy remains to start building positions in commodity-related names that erase all their QE2 gains under the assumption that such a discount is near the maximum loss before the Federal Reserve (and/or other central banks) attempts some new stimulative measures. Regardless, these are all longer-term bets on resource scarcity in the face of rapid global population and economic growth.

On August 7, my first two such trades triggered: EWZ, the iShares Brazil ETF, and Alpha Natural Resources (ANR), a metallurgical and thermal coal company (see “‘Commodities Crash’ Triggers First Trades: Alpha Natural Resources, iShares Brazil ETF“). Yesterday (Aug 8), two more trades triggered: Vale SA (VALE) and EWA, the iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund ETF.

Here is a list of additional, non-agricultural commodity stocks that have lost their QE2 gains, most of them yesterday (Aug 8). I break these out into names that are currently on the strategy list, shorts, stocks not on the strategy list, and “special recognition” stocks.

{snip}

Be careful out there!

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.)

Full disclosure: long EWZ, ANR, VALE, EWA

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