How to play wheat and corn

As a novice spread better, you can get burned fast playing in a market you don’t understand. So here are our top tips on how to play the soft commodities markets.

If one asset class has caught the full force of money printing by central banks, it's commodities. Global recessions notwithstanding, some parts of the market have been on fire. Take silver. It's a useful industrial metal and it's a decent enough poor man's alternative to gold as a safe haven. But is that enough to explain a price rise from $13 an ounce before the credit crunch to above $40? Hot money has undoubtedly helped.

And silver is not alone. Across the board, commodities continue to surge corn hit a near-three-year high recently and pulled wheat with it. Meanwhile, a MoneyWeek favourite gold still trades near record highs of more than $1,400 an ounce. That's about five times the price at which Gordon Brown sold off half the UK's reserves just after he became chancellor under Tony Blair. As for oil jitters over civil unrest and outright war have helped keep the price up at around $120 per barrel (depending on which measure you use).

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MoneyWeek is written by a team of experienced and award-winning journalists, plus expert columnists. As well as daily digital news and features, MoneyWeek also publishes a weekly magazine, covering investing and personal finance. From share tips, pensions, gold to practical investment tips - we provide a round-up to help you make money and keep it.