PITNEWS.COM
Figure 1: Homepage, Pitnews.com
Commodities traders need to be knowledgeable about the fundamentals behind their trading. For example, grain traders need to know the production cycle of specific crops: planting season, the ideal soil conditions for growth, weather conditions, harvesting season, and so forth. Cocoa traders need information on the crop seasons of the various cocoa-producing nations, as well as other factors such as common cocoa diseases. Such knowledge will enable traders to correlate price movements with fundamentals.
PitNews.com features several articles on the various commodities markets, including such topics as seasonal tendencies. From the homepage it is obvious that this site is related to Gecko Software, developers of Track 'n Trade Pro. You'll find a lot of references to that product, as well as ChartBook.com, but in addition, you will find a handful of educational articles about the commodities markets.
The site is updated daily, and you'll notice that several different markets are covered. The first article you will see partially displayed on the homepage is called "Market Tips." This section features commodities recommendations, followed by writeups supporting those recommendations. The article I looked at discussed the soybean market. It mentioned seasonal patterns, the ideal soil conditions for growing soybeans, and the importance of pollination. This information can give you an idea of when prices tend to be high and when they tend to be low. Typically, a chart of the contract in question is displayed, along with technical indicators. You'll also see a list of commodities that are displaying some sort of significant pattern, and a list of buy and sell recommendations. The content was certainly interesting, although I am not suggesting that you follow the recommendations (they only represent someone's opinions).
The fundamentals report gives an overview of the market plus a short writeup about the different markets that are traded. There is also a market wrap-up section that is updated after the commodities markets officially close. This includes discussions of fundamentals, technicals, open positions (if any), and recommendations (if any). The section on seasonal strategies contains articles taken from www.TntSeasonals.com; these are written by Lan Turner and Scott Barrie, sometime contributors to STOCKS & COMMODITIES.
As far as the educational content of the articles goes, I thought they were a great read (though a little editing and proofreading would not be amiss) and certainly helped in getting a better insight of the commodities markets. If you are interested in trading commodities or would like to find out more, it's worth reading some of these articles.
-Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan, Editor
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