Quote Originally Posted by breathweapon
Alright, I'll consider myself PWNed for the moment. It's an interesting thread and I'm going to read it in full before I comment further. But off hand, since when has Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Coal and Timber, Building Materials and Titanium/Platinum/Gold/Silver ever hit a down turn since the 80s? I have never thought of these investments as high risk, since I started investing in 98. Considering the geo political issues for oil and gas, the rise of third world industrial powers and the IT consumption of precious metals, they seem like one of the safest/lucrative places to put your money. I've never regretted, and I'm not going to stop by any means, but I'm always interested in pointers from any one older than me in investing.
Commodities have been on a bull run for the past several years because of demand for them from emerging markets, but they are nevertheless extremely volatile and therefore high risk. They have definitely been lucrative but they are by no means safe. Look at the run-up in oil prices in the last little while, ditto gold. What goes up so fast can go down just as quickly.