Courtesy of Paul Kedrosky, a great visual list of which assets performed best in 2010.  List doesn’t include the TSX, which gained 14.3% in 2010. Otherwise, very helpful in terms of getting investors to expand their investing universe as I suspect many focus on a far narrower list.
Regards,
George
If you don’t know who David Rosenberg is, you better get to know him. Why? Forget about his title – there are plenty of useless anyalysts out there with big titles - here is his track record in what has been a very difficult decade for institutional and retail investors:
From 2001 to 2008, Mr. Rosenberg was ranked first in economics in the Brendan Wood International Survey for Canada, ranked second overall in the 2008 Institutional Investors Survey for the U.S., and was on the Institutional Investor All American All Star Team from 2005-2008. Mr. Rosenberg also ranked 4th out of 104 economists in the 2009 Thomson-Extel survey of global portfolio managers. Mr. Rosenberg also ranked 4th out of 104 economists in the 2009 Thompson-Extel survey of global portfolio managers.
He is currently the Chief Economist over at Gluskin Sheff and a Canadian. I don’t add in that last point for humour. As a Canadian, I believe he has a decidedly more rational head than his US counterparts that are typically guilty of both following the herd and looking after their own pockets. I love the fact that Rosenberg doesn’t sit on the fence. He develops a market outlook and tells you what he’s going to do about it. None of the typical, “the ying could yang, but the yang could ying” bullshit that you often hear from these guys.
More importantly, as his track record demonstrates, he is often right.
Rosenberg is a great tool for retail investors because he isn’t shy about sharing his views. He frequently speaks with both traditional media and some of the better financial blogs, including my friend Barry Ritholtz. As such, it’s pretty easy to follow his thoughts. I suggest you follow him via a Google Alert RSS Feed so that you don’t miss a thing.
RESOURCE SECTOR REMAINS A CORE HOLDING
In his market commentary yesterday, he provided his typical great analysis on the state of the markets. It’s a must read as he covers inflation, deflation, the US economy, emerging markets and his recommended investment strategies. In addition, he made the following statement with respect to the resource sector:
Moreover, I don’t believe in all the stories about China collapsing. In fact, if there is a bullish story to be told, it is that the secular growth paths in not only China, but India, Indonesia and Korea and that will continue to ensure that the resource sector remains a core holding, with oil and food retaining geopolitical significance and gold remaining a critical hedge against ongoing reflationary policies that weakens the U.S. dollar in coming months as a critical mid-term election approaches.
If that isn’t telling it like it is, I don’t know what is.
Regards,
George
Marc Faber, managing director of Marc Faber Ltd and Barron’s Roundtable member, anticipates meaningful market correction in 2010. Mining and agriculture will be top performers within commodity sector.
Regards,
George
I am very proud to announce that Gregor Macdonald, an oil analyst and energy sector investor who also focuses on the coming transition to alternatives, is a keynote speaker at this week’s AGORACOM Online Gold and Commodities Conference, this December 3rd and 4th We’re not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet but we can tell you that Gregor is working hard and “feeling quite good about my presentation, which will concentrate on Coal, and Energy Transition (with some internal nods to failed monetary policy and scarce resources)”.
Gregor’s thoughts on the energy sector and alternatives are sought after by investors around the world, as evidenced by the fact he has written for the Financial Times of London and cited in the New York Times, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, WIRED, and the Oil And Gas Journal. In addition, he recently appeared on MSNBC in the United States and BNN in Canada.
Gregor has also made a major impact on the real-time financial discussion stream via the StockTwits Financial Network, where more than 3,000 investors follow his commentary and watch is weekly 1-hour show every Sunday night. As such, his keynote will provide tremendous value to investors that are seeing direction in the energy markets during this volatile time. Please check our schedule to tune into Gregor’s presentation. The conference is free for investors and does not even require registration unless you plan to interact with companies, presenters and fellow investors.
In addition, Gregor will be in good company amongst our highly acclaimed line up of keynote speakers that will include:
Gregor produces two newsletters:Â Gregor.us Monthly – a big picture take on global energy and economics and Gregor Weekly – a new global macro and model portfolio service via the StockTwits financial network,
You can follow his free public commentary via his blog, Twitter or StockTwits TV.
See you at the conference!
Regards,
George
AGORACOM Client, Legend International Holdings has yet again signed a major deal with a large fertilizer producer. Â Before getting into today’s news, here is some brief but powerful info about the company:
LGDI SIGNS LANDMARK AGREEMENT WITH IFFCO, INDIA’S LARGEST FERTILIZER ENTERPRISE
On July 16th, 2008, LGDI and IFFCO, announced this landmark agreement.
IFFCO is India’s largest fertilizer enterprise, a cooperative with over 50 million farmers associated with it, primarily engaged in production and marketing of nitrogenous and phosphate fertilizers in India. IFFCO has five fertilizer plants in India with a domestic annual capacity of producing 4.3 million tonnes of phosphatic fertilizers and 4.2 million tonnes of nitrogenous fertilizers.
When your biggest future customer has enough confidence in you to outright own 34,000,00 shares + an option to acquire another 17,000,000 shares, you have to feel good about the company.
On September 22, SEC filings showed that IFFCO acquired an additional 6,000,000 shares in LGDI via open market purchases.
GEORGE SOROS OWNS 10.18% OF LEGEND INTERNATIONAL
Reuters reported that George Soros, via Soros Fund Management, has taken a 5.19% stake (11.7 million shares) in AGORACOM client Legend International Holdings (LGDI: OTCBB).
On October 17,2008Â his stake in LGDI was increased to 10.18%
TODAYS PRESS RELEASE
Last night, Legend announced the forming of a strategic alliance with Wengfu Group Co. Ltd (Wengfu) for the development of its phosphate mine, a beneficiation plant and a phosphoric acid plant in the Mt Isa region, Queensland, Australia.
How significant is this?
Wengfu is the one of the largest phosphate fertilizer producers in China, and has developed two phosphate mines in Guizhou Province and beneficiation, fertilizer and chemical plants in Guizhou, Gansu and Sichuan Provinces, China. Wengfu produces over 2.5 million tonnes of finished fertilizer products. Wengfu exports fertilizer to over twenty countries worldwide including Australia and New Zealand.
Other highlights of the press release include:
I especially like the fact that Wengfu may also become an equity partner with Legend, which would only add to the strength already brought by IFFCO.
Background
Legend is led by Joseph Gutnick, a prominent Australian mining industry entrepreneur, who has overseen some of Australia’s largest and most prestigious resource discoveries.
Legend’s primary focus is the development of its phosphate interests in the Georgina Basin, Queensland, Australia including Paradise (formerly Lady Annie and Lady Jane), D-Tree, Thorntonia, Lily Creek, Quita Creek, Sherrin Creek and Highland Plains.
Legend plans to produce an average of 5 million tonnes per year of phosphate rock concentrate of 30%+ P2O5 by 2012, thus becoming one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate rock. More information on Legend is available athttp://www.lgdi.net/.
AGORACOM Announces Online Gold and Commodities Conference – December 3 – 4, 2009
Investors From Over 20 Countries Expected To Attend Inaugural Online Conference That Includes Keynote Speakers Peter Grandich, Barry Ritholtz, Paul Kedrosky, Eric Coffin, and Gregor Macdonald.
TORONTO, November 12, 2009 – AGORACOM, a leading online financial community focusing on the small-cap and mid-cap markets, today announced the launch of its online investor conference initiative that will begin with the AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference on December 3rd and 4th, 2009.
The online nature of the conference will allow investors, both retail and institutional, to connect with small and mid-cap resource companies faster, better and cheaper than traditional investor conferences thanks to the elimination of all expenses related to travel, lodging, materials and time away from work.
GLOBAL INVESTORS PARTICIPATING FROM THEIR OFFICES AND HOMES
Using the AGORACOM Conference platform, presenting companies, attending investors and keynote speakers will all participate from the comfort of their offices and homes. As a result, the conference will be comprised of a global audience vs. a local audience, which is expected to draw investors from more than 20 countries.
AGORACOM Founder, George Tsiolis, stated “Having already pioneered online investor relations, it just made complete sense to pioneer online investment conferences for the small and mid-cap space. Our survey data clearly shows that investors use the web as their primary tool to research and find new investments. What is really exciting is the fact that investors living outside of the established but small group of North American conference cities will finally have an opportunity to participate and benefit from a Tier-1 investor conference. With gold trading at all-time highs and other commodities enjoying a bullish market, I expect to have investors from more than 20 countries participating in our inaugural eventâ€.
PRESENTING COMPANIES
The conference will focus on emerging small and mid-cap resource companies who are required to have demonstrated excellence through a combination of one or more of the following:
AGORACOM is limiting the total number of presenting companies to 50. Currently, over 25 companies have committed to the conference, leaving approximately 25 spots available. Presenting companies will be active in industries that include precious metals, base metals, rare metals, oil & gas and clean energy technologies.
REASONS TO PRESENT YOUR PUBLIC COMPANY
1.  A built in audience. Last year, AGORACOM attracted over 1.3 million investors, 7.9 million visits and generated just under 100 million page views. (Full Story).
2. AGORACOM content partners include GlobeInvestor, AOL Money Canada, Yahoo Finance Canada and every Blackberry device on the planet. (Full Details).
3. Conference presentations will have a shelf-life far beyond the end of the conference due to posting and tagging on the web’s biggest finance and social media sites that will reach new audiences indefinitely.
4. Significantly reduced hard costs related to travel and materials, as well as, soft costs related to time management.
5. An AGORACOM survey revealed that 59.4% of investors no longer find traditional conferences valuable and obtain all of their information from the web.
6. An IR Magazine Think Tank of Canada’s 40 leading IRO’s recently met and concluded that Twitter and Blogs are now the primary information source for analysts and institutional investors.
REASONS FOR INVESTORS TO ATTEND
1.  Participate in a high-quality conference in which you get to watch presentations, interact with CEO’s & IRO’s in near real-time and discover new potential investments.
2. Watch presentations from a line-up of highly-acclaimed keynote speakers.
3. It’s free and investors can participate from anywhere in the world. Register Here (form is on the right hand side)
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Keynote presenters at the conference include some of the most accomplished industry speakers and financial bloggers in the world
This press release was distributed by MarketWire, the official news wire of AGORACOM.com and the AGORACOM Online Gold & Commodities Conference.
About AGORACOM – Online Investor Relations Community For Small and Mid-Cap Companies
AGORACOM is North America’s largest online investor relations community for small-cap and mid-cap companies. We have partnered with the world’s biggest Internet companies to deliver content that connects public companies and investors, including Globe Investor, Yahoo, AOL and Blackberry. Over 250 public companies have used AGORACOM to conduct online investor relations.
More than just lip service, AGORACOM attracted 1.31 million investors that visited 7.9 million times and read just under 100 million pages of information last year.
CONTACT INFORMATION
George Tsiolis, LL.B
Founder
AGORACOM
As you all know, the AGORACOM blog has been a big fan of Jim Rogers since we began publishing, so when he speaks, we listen. Rogers was featured on Yahoo Monday morning and had some interesting comments on commodities that go far beyond gold. I’d give you the highlights but I would be doing you a disservice by not directing you to watch the entire 5-minute video.
For those of you who simply don’t invest in commodities and don’t have the time to buy or expertise to buy sugar futures, physical gold, etc do not despair – Rogers advises that ETF’s are the best way to go for most investors. To this end, he is most bullish on agricultural commodities.
Grab a cup of coffee, kick your feet up and watch the following:
Regards,
George