[quote author="BondTrader" date=1243652821][quote author="usctrojanman29" date=1243645599][quote author="morekaos" date=1243641442][quote author="usctrojanman29" date=1243641307][quote author="irvine_grad" date=1243637034][quote author="norcaljeff" date=1243575122]This thing has slowed down so there's either no interest because the rally is mostly over or people aren't making easy money
I've done well on oil and gasoline. Stayed away from everything else except TIPS.</blockquote>
What's causing the oil runup? I thought OPEC left output the same and was thinking about increasing it?</blockquote>
What else....HOT MONEY (aka speculators). I've heard that there are ships and ships loaded up with oil just sitting around everywhere.</blockquote>
Soon to collapse</blockquote>
2008 all over again? When do you think we head back down on USO?</blockquote>
If you like to play the high/hyper inflation, don't buy TIPs, won't help you that much, TIPs are tied to CPI, which I considered to be the worst inflation indicator out there (excluding food and energy, WTF??!!), buy gold and sliver.</blockquote>
Wrong!
TIPS are tied to CPI-U (All urban consumers) which does include food and energy. You are thinking of Core-CPI, which does indeed strip out food and energy. Here is a link the BLS site that includes the components of CPI-U and recent changes.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
Gold is a very weak inflation hedge as any long term correlation statistics will indicate (Silver is worse).
http://seekingalpha.com/article/19950-gold-remains-a-poor-inflation-gauge
I believe Gold is far more useful as a currency hedge against the devaluation of the dollar (inflationary yes, but not inflation exactly). Considering the opportunity cost of holding gold, why not hold foreign currencies outright where the carry and fundamentals are attractive?