Trading Information

Article Navigation

Click Here for more articles

What Part Do Commodities Play in the Market and in our Shopping?

by: David Arnold Livingston

Commodities are any goods or wares that are up for sale or trade. These things include such things as food, furniture, cars, or anything that is generally manufactured, sold or traded.

Commodities are a part of life! We use them all the time! The coffee on your cupboard, the cereals, the soap, the shampoo, the toothpaste � all of these constitute everyday commodities.

The word commodity comes from the French word commodit�. This means �benefit� or �profit.� This too comes from the earlier Latin word commoditas which refers to good quality or propriety. The word commodit� is related in meaning to the French word biens. Biens means goods. Many people use goods and commodities interchangeably.

Definition

As a business word, commodities are products that can in fact be worth more to their owner if sold instead of used. For example, you might have a large stock of canned goods that you won�t be able to consume before it expires. It would be better to sell them off instead, since you would benefit more from the sale than from just eating all of them.

In the business world, the most common examples of commodities are oil, chemicals, raw materials, canned goods and other consumer goods that are often bought or sold.

Originally commodities were things that had value. Commodities had to be uniform in their quality and mass produced by different entities to be considered as such. There is an unwritten contract among these producers that their products must be of such standard that they can be at least interchangeably used to some degree. This allows the consumers to, for example, to switch brands of flour when baking without having to agonize too much over the brand of the flour product.

Let us take, for example, producers of powdered milk. Although they belong to different brands with different organizations and process management, they will still be expected to produce a powdered milk brand that is similar, in category. There will be differences in quality, taste and some other attributes. However, when you think of powdered milk, these products will have to fit the bill.

Strictly speaking, commodities will often refer to wholesale or brandless goods. This means that the commodities will come from direct suppliers of these goods and do not go through the process of marketing, and branding.

A good example of this is oil. The supplier in this case does not matter. Oil is assumed to be oil, and that the use of such should not depend on the supplier. That is why, in commodities trading, once you�ve seen one barrel of oil, you�ve seen them all.

Branding

Producers may want to have their products distinguishable from other products. To do this, they employ branding. Branding is the activities engaged to make a product, from a certain producer, stand out from other products of the same kind. Taking the milk example from earlier, we could give one of the producers the name, Moo Milk. It could be told apart from others because of its label, marketing, and container. It might differ a bit from other products in quality.

This will most definitely increase the price of the goods. The upside to this is that the particular product with the best brand name and brand recognition is sure to get a better portion of the market.

About the author:
David Arnold Livingston is a successful business owner
and entrepreneur. He recommends the resource:
For Commodities

Circulated by Article Emporium

Read Articles:

Wholesale Buyers Versus Retail Customers

9 Deadly Mistakes of the Stock Trader:

Generate Traffic And Make Money

Some Fast ways to lose money online quickly

Looking for the best opinion relating to brokers.

Staying Out Of Trouble With Ebay�s Listing Poli...

The Uses in Forex Trading of Moving Averages an...

InvestorIdeas.com presents �The Insiders Corner...

How To Buy a Product or Service With No Money

Business card printing: At your service!

High Powered Ways To Increase Your Traffic

Work from home with e-currency

Pink Sheets Discover Disclosure.

Your Competitors Offer Leasing Finance, you sho...

Trends and Profitable Trading In The Forex Mark...

The Most Popular Subjects People Will Pay For!

Identity theft: Safeguarding Can't Hurt

Boost Your Income With Financial Spread Betting

The New Border Patrol - National Registration o...

Which Type of Ebayer Are You?

Invest Now for Dividends Later

What's the difference between successful busine...

Goodbye Multi-Level Marketing and Hello E-curre...

SAFELY PROTECT YOUR HOME BASED DREAM OF RETIRIN...

ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS�THE CALL OF THE TIME

THE Secret Weapon For Gaining Wealth

Surviving Tough Times Online

The Simple Tactic the Internet Gurus use to Tur...

Alternative Business Client Gifts

What MACD & RSI Mean in Forex Trading?

Are You One of the New Disposable Workers?

E-currency Exchange Trading

What Part Do Commodities Play in the Market and...

Customer Relationship Management

More Article Pages 1 - 2

Forex: Benefits of Trading the Forex Market
by: Raul Lopez

Trading the Forex market has become very popular in the last years. Why is it that traders around the world see the Forex market as an investment opportunity? We will try to answer this question in this article. Also we will discuss come differences between the Forex market, the stocks market and the futures market.

Some of the benefits of trading the Forex market are:

Superior liquidity.

Liquidity is what really makes the Forex market different from other markets. The Forex market is by far the most liquid financial market in the world with nearly 2 trillion dollars traded everyday. This ensures price stability and better trade execution. Allowing traders to open and close transactions with ease. Also such a tremendous volume makes it hard to manipulate the market in an extended manner.

24hr Market.

This one is also one of the greatest advantages of trading Forex. It is an around the click market, the market opens on Sunday at 3:00 pm EST when New Zealand begins operations, and closes on Friday at 5:00 pm EST when San Francisco terminates operations. There are transactions in practically every time zone, allowing active traders to choose at what time to trade.

Leverage trading.

Trading the Forex Market offers a greater buying power than many other markets. Some Forex brokers offer leverage up to 400:1, allowing traders to have only 0.25% in margin of the total investment. For instance, a trader using 100:1 means that to have a US$100,000 position, only US$1,000 are needed on margin to be able to open that position.

Low Transaction costs.

Almost all brokers offer commission free trading. The only cost traders incur in any transaction is the spread (difference between the buy and sell price of each currency pair). This spread could be as low as 1 pip (the minimum increment in any currency pair) in some pairs.

Low minimum investment.

The Forex market requires less capital to start trading than any other markets. The initial investment could go as low as $300 USD, depending on leverage offered by the broker. This is a great advantage since Forex traders are able to keep their risk investment to the lowest level.

Specialized trading.

The liquidity of the market allows us to focus on just a few instruments (or currency pairs) as our main investments (85% of all trading transactions are made on the seven major currencies). Allowing us to monitor, and at the end get to know each instrument better.

Trading from anywhere.

If you do a lot of traveling, you can trade from anywhere in the world just having an internet connection.

Some of the most important differences between the Forex market and other markets are explained below.

Forex market vs. Equity markets

Liquidity

FX market: Near two trillion dollars of daily volume.

Equity market: Around 200 billion on a daily basis.

Trading hours

FX market: 24hr market, 5.5 days a week.

Equity market: Monday through Friday from 8:30 EST to 5:00 EST.

Profit potential

FX market: In both, rising and falling markets.

Equity market: Most traders/investor profit only from rising markets.

Transaction costs

FX market: Commission free and tight spreads.

Equity market: High Commissions and transaction fees.

Buying power

FX market: Leverage up to 400:1.

Equity market: Leverage from 2:1 to 4:1.

Specialization

FX market: most volume (85%) is made on major currencies (USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD and AUD.)

Equity market: More than 40,000 stocks to choose from.

Forex market vs. Futures market

Liquidity

FX Market: Near two trillion dollars of daily volume.

Futures market: Around 400 billion dollars on a daily basis.

Transaction costs

FX market: Commission free and tight spreads.

Futures market: High commissions fees.

Margin

FX market: Fixed rate of margin on every position.

Futures market: Different levels of margin on overnight positions than day time positions.

Trade execution

FX market: Instantaneous execution.

Futures market: Inconsistent execution.

All this makes the Forex market very attractive to investors and traders. But I need to make something clear, although the benefits of trading the Forex market are notorious; it is still difficult to make a successful career trading the Forex market. It requires a lot of education, discipline, commitment and patience, as any other market.

This Static Spot is open for sponsor

This Static Spot is open for sponsor