Many analysts are of the opinion that commodity investing maybe the best investments in the early part of the 21st century. Take the name of oil, oil is the most heavily traded commodity in the world right now. Gold is another commodity that is reaching record price levels. Gold prices for the first time have breached the unheard of $1000 per ounce barrier. Investing in commodities may be the something that investors thought of boring and dull only a few decades back but not anymore now. If you are interested in investing in companies that are involved in the production, transformation and distribution of commodities, than one of the best ways to do so is through investing in the Master Limited Partnership (MLP).

The shares that an MLP issues are called Units and the investors who own them are known as Unit Holders. MLPs are public entities that trade on public exchanges. An MLP issues shares that trade on an exchange just like a company stocks that trades on an exchange. You can invest in an MLP by buying its shares on an exchange.

Now most of the MLPs trade on the New York Stock Exchange. A few MLPs also trade on the NASDAQ and the AMEX. When you invest in an MLP, you are essentially investing in public partnership. There are tax advantages to investing in MLP. Unlike regular corporations, an MLP is only taxed once. Because of Congressional Legislation, any MLP that derives 90% or more of its income from the production, distribution and transformation of commodities qualifies for this tax exempt scheme. You must be curious how this tax advantage works out.

Congressional Legislation, any MLP that derives 90% or more of its income from the production, distribution and transformation of commodities qualifies for this tax exempt scheme.

Since an MLP has got the tax exempt status it will only have to generate only $1.54 for each dollar that you invest in it. Suppose you invest $1 in the stocks of a regular corporation and you are in the 35% tax bracket. Corporate tax is 30% of its before tax income. This means that for each dollar that you invest you need to get at least $1/ (1-0.35) =$1.54 just in order to breakeven. So the corporation will have to generate $1.54/ (1-0.3) =$2.2 for each dollar that you invest in order to return you $1 after tax profit. In most cases, the majority of these GPs in MLPs are other corporate entities setup with the specific purpose of running an MLP. This tax advantage gives an MLP competitive advantage as compared to other corporations when competing for assets. This means a huge advantage for an MLP. Now an MLP is run by a General Partner (GP).

However, most GPs do a good job of running the MLP as it is in their financial interests. Now you must know as a limited partner in an MLP, you have limited voting rights. This means when you invest in an MLP, you are giving away the keys of ownership to the GP. This means you are out of the decision making in an MLP.

An MLP is obligated to distribute all available cash back to its unit holders on a quarterly basis, so you will be getting a quarterly income from your units. Secondly as the MLP expands and grows overtime, its units may give you capital gain as well. Investing in MLP units can give you quarterly cash flows as well as appreciation of the unit price.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.

Commodity investing may become the hottest investment in the first decades of the 21st century. Right now gold prices have broken the $1000 per ounce barrier for the first time in history. It is predicted that this upward trend in gold prices will continue for the foreseeable future. Oil prices have also started reaching $80 per barrel and it is expected that oil price will soon be above the $100 per barrel mark. It may eventually reach the $200 per barrel barrier. If you are interested in investing in commodities than you can invest in a commodity mutual fund! Many people are not aware that commodities as an asset class has a lot of potential especially in the 21st century. It is being predicted that the 21st century belongs to the commodities.

Just buy the shares of the commodity mutual fund and let its NAV appreciate before you can sell for a capital gain. This is the simplest way for you to get involved in investing in commodities as the mutual fund portfolio management will be done by a professional manager and you have to do nothing.

There is another investment vehicle that is really hot right now with the public. ETFs started off some three decades back but became highly popular as investment vehicles in such a short time. Now, you must have heard about the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs are really hot investments these days. There are a number of ETFs that invest in commodities.

Now the good thing about investing in ETFs is that they give you the diversification benefits of a mutual fund with very low fees something like 0.7% as compared to 2-4% of the mutual fund. Driven by the growing demand of commodities by the investors many financial institutions are now offering Commodity ETFs.

ETFs have the added benefit of being able to trade like stocks giving you the powerful combination of diversification and liquidity. So unlike a mutual fund whose net asset value is calculated at the end of the day and the shares of mutual fund cannot be traded during the day, you can go both long or short on ETFs all the time. Something you cannot do with a mutual fund!

ETFs are mostly constructed to mimic some market sector index. Sector ETFs are a hot investment right now. Now, you can find thousands of ETFs in the market on different market sectors, stock indexes, currencies, commodities and so on. This diversification plus liquidity benefit makes an ETF a better investment tool as compared to the mutual fund and the stocks.

The first Commodity ETF in US was launched by Deutsche Bank in the start of 2006. The Deutsche Bank Commodity Index Tracking Fund is listed on AMEX and tracks the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index. This index is based on a basket of six commodities: light sweet crude oil, heating oil, gold, aluminum, corn and wheat.

Now, every month a new ETF gets launched. There are a number of Commodity ETFs that track individual commodities like crude oil, gold and silver. Do your research on Commodity ETFs, you may find a good investment. This ETF invests directly in the commodity futures contract. Now one of the downsides of investing in this Commodity ETFs is that it can be fairly volatile as it is based on commodity futures contracts that get rolled monthly. Another downside to this Commodity ETF is that it is based on a basket of six commodities only.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

One thing should be clear to you. Energy markets will be a major focal point in the global financial makers and the global economy for many years to come. The key to understanding energy trading is to understand oil, natural gas, gasoline and heating oil futures.

NYMEX trades futures and options contracts for crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, gasoline, coal, electricity and propane. NYMEX is also home to trading in metals. Trading in energy futures is centralized at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world’s largest physical commodity futures exchange.

For smaller traders NYMEX offers e-mini contracts for oil and natural gas that also trades on the GLOBEX network of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Trading in NYMEX is conducted in two divisions: 1) The NYMEX Division and 2) The COMEX Division. You can trade crude oil futures. If you haven’t done futures trading before than before you start trading crude oil futures, you should first educate yourself on how to trade futures contracts. The good thing is that you can paper trade on your demo account with the use of virtual money. Paper trading is something that should not be missed by even professional traders. Practice makes your trading perfect!

The relationship between energy and interest rates is very important to understand. This relationship ties together the two most important aspects of the global economy: energy (the fuel for growth) and the interest rates (the catalyst that powers borrowed money to do things). Next to interest rates, energy and especially oil is the center of the universe not only for the industry but also for the financial markets.

As a trader, you should know this fact that oil price rise often tends to slow down the economy and lower retail sales as well as consumer confidence with lower traffic on the highways. Sometimes the rise in oil prices leads to the increase in interest rates through the bond market and the actions of central banks and the other times the opposite happens. Rise in oil prices if often inflationary.

Some people consider the Peak Oil idea as controversial but this concept is increasingly plausible given the state of the global oil industry. Oil production in countries like Venezuela, Iran and Nigeria has peaked and is going down. Non OPEC sources of oil like North Sea and Mexico are also showing sign of declining production. There has been no major oil well discovery for the last few decades.

Many oil wells have gone dry. US was a major producer of oil in the beginning of the 20th century but over time, depleted all its oil reservoirs. The last oil well went dry in Texas in the early part of’70s. Oil production in countries like Venezuela, Iran and Nigeria has peaked and is going down. Non OPEC sources of oil like North Sea and Mexico are also showing sign of declining production. There has been no major oil well discovery for the last few decades. Some people consider the Peak Oil idea as controversial but this concept is increasingly plausible given the state of the global oil industry. The peak oil concept is very important for you to know. This means that now in the next few decades, we will be witnessing an uptrend in the oil prices as the global demand increases and the supply is unable to catch up with the global demand of oil. When oil prices reach above $100 per barrel, it becomes too expensive for the industry as well as the private consumer. With this price level, chances are that more and more investment will go into the alternative energy industry. Now you should keep these facts in the background of your mind as a trader. In any case, most of the experts now agree that in the next 10-20 years, the oil production will peak and after that it will start declining.

Now you should keep these facts in the background of your mind as a trader. In any case, most of the experts now agree that in the next 10-20 years, the oil production will peak and after that it will start declining. 1) Demand fluctuates but supply of oil is finite. 2) The world runs on oil and any threat to the supply of oil often leads to rising prices. As an oil trader your primary goal is to consider the effects of events on the supply of oil and correlate this effect with your charts.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.

The reason MLPs exist is to distribute all available cash back to the MLP unit holders. As said, this has to be done on a quarterly basis. The following factors are considered before determining the amount of cash distributed to each individual investor:

1) How many units you hold as an MLP investor. 2) The incentive distribution rights created for the GP. 3) The difference between the total cash flow and the cash flow ploughed back into the MLP for futures growth.

So once you decide to invest in commodities, you have many investment options like mutual funds, stocks, ETFs as well as MLPs. You must do your due diligence while making your investment decisions. There are always pros and cons of each investment vehicle!

You can invest in commodity stocks, you can invest in commodity ETFs, you can invest in commodity mutual funds. The possibilities are many. So investing in an MLP is just like investing in stocks. Investing in MLPs is quite simple. Since an MLP is a publicly traded entity. You can simply invest in an MLP by calling your broker and telling him or her how many units of a particular MLP you are interested in buying.

Something like 50 MLPs is being publicly traded in the United States. Out of these 50, 40 are energy MLPs meaning that they are involved in the storage terminals, pipelines, transportation, refining and distribution. Majority of MLPs trade on NYSE with a few trading on NASDAQ and AMEX!

Most of these MLPs engage in infrastructure investment that can pay a steady stream of revenue overtime. Moreover, investing in pipelines and other energy infrastructure offers steady cash flow streams for an MLP. You only need to remember this 90% of the income that comes to an MLP should come from the production and distribution of commodities for these MLPs to have the tax exempt status.

So when you invest in an MLP, you should look for answers to the following questions: 1) What’s the historical payout of the MLP? 2) How much is the cash flow? And so on. If your brokerage firm has published some research on the MLPs, you can reference that.

Don’t forget there is always some risk involved in any investment. The more return you demand, the more risk you will have to take. Now investing in MLPs do come with some risks like most of the infrastructure is like pipelines and drilling rigs that are vulnerable to natural disasters and earth quakes like the Hurricane Katrina, so any such event can have a negative impact on your investment.

Since the MLP is fairly small at this moment, there can be liquidity issues in withdrawing your investment from an MLP. These are some of the risk that you can face while investing in an MLP. There is another risk related with the management. You don’t have much say in the management of the MLP. Running an MLP is basically a GP show. If you are not satisfied with the performance of the management or its policies only thing that you can do is to withdraw your investment from that MLP.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.

Many analysts are of the opinion that commodity investing maybe the best investments in the early part of the 21st century. Take the name of oil, oil is the most heavily traded commodity in the world right now. Gold is another commodity that is reaching record price levels. Gold prices for the first time have breached the unheard of $1000 per ounce barrier. Investing in commodities may be the something that investors thought of boring and dull only a few decades back but not anymore now. If you are interested in investing in companies that are involved in the production, transformation and distribution of commodities, than one of the best ways to do so is through investing in the Master Limited Partnership (MLP).

The shares that an MLP issues are called Units and the investors who own them are known as Unit Holders. MLPs are public entities that trade on public exchanges. An MLP issues shares that trade on an exchange just like a company stocks that trades on an exchange. You can invest in an MLP by buying its shares on an exchange.

Now most of the MLPs trade on the New York Stock Exchange. A few MLPs also trade on the NASDAQ and the AMEX. When you invest in an MLP, you are essentially investing in public partnership. There are tax advantages to investing in MLP. Unlike regular corporations, an MLP is only taxed once. Because of Congressional Legislation, any MLP that derives 90% or more of its income from the production, distribution and transformation of commodities qualifies for this tax exempt scheme. You must be curious how this tax advantage works out.

There is a tax exemption on MLPs. You must be curious how this tax advantage works out. Because of Congressional Legislation, any MLP that derives 90% or more of its income from the production, distribution and transformation of commodities qualifies for this tax exempt scheme.

Since an MLP has got the tax exempt status it will only have to generate only $1.54 for each dollar that you invest in it. Suppose you invest $1 in the stocks of a regular corporation and you are in the 35% tax bracket. Corporate tax is 30% of its before tax income. This means that for each dollar that you invest you need to get at least $1/ (1-0.35) =$1.54 just in order to breakeven. So the corporation will have to generate $1.54/ (1-0.3) =$2.2 for each dollar that you invest in order to return you $1 after tax profit. In most cases, the majority of these GPs in MLPs are other corporate entities setup with the specific purpose of running an MLP. This tax advantage gives an MLP competitive advantage as compared to other corporations when competing for assets. This means a huge advantage for an MLP. Now an MLP is run by a General Partner (GP).

However, most GPs do a good job of running the MLP as it is in their financial interests. Now you must know as a limited partner in an MLP, you have limited voting rights. This means when you invest in an MLP, you are giving away the keys of ownership to the GP. This means you are out of the decision making in an MLP.

An MLP is obligated to distribute all available cash back to its unit holders on a quarterly basis, so you will be getting a quarterly income from your units. Secondly as the MLP expands and grows overtime, its units may give you capital gain as well. Investing in MLP units can give you quarterly cash flows as well as appreciation of the unit price.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service