Six Things That You Should Know About Grain Prices Every YearWritten by Dailyfutures.com
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Four: Traditional economic theory relies on consumer taking advantage of low prices to bring balance to market. However, low prices, in and of themselves, do not stimulate enough consumption to balance market forces. Show me a market with low prices and a bearish outlook and I will show you consumers that are in no hurry to buy. Why should they be in any rush when they are expecting abundant supplies later? Let other guy pay for storage. Bullish market outlooks and a fear of tight supplies are what stimulate market buying; not low prices. Five: Producers want to hear bullish market outlooks early in year and there will never be a shortage of advisories that are willing to provide them. It is only human to want to hear good news. Unfortunately, bullish outlooks early in year discourage producers from hedging their risks when costs of doing so are advantageous. Six: When it comes to predicting future, there are no experts. War, weather, disease, government policies, and international crises all have huge, unpredictable influences on market prices. It doesn't matter who you are or how much you think that you know, market will always be a source of surprise to its participants. It is not wise to leave yourself vulnerable to anyone's prediction. Soon you will be hearing about how this will be year that soybeans hit $7.00 and corn goes to $3.50. Who knows? Maybe this will be that one year when farming really pays. But just in case it's not, it would be wise to look at your options, consider six things above that are true for grain prices every year, and protect yourself from risk of lower prices. Dailyfutures.com. February 12, 2002.
Dailyfutures.com is a free source of news, articles, and information for the commodity futures markets.
| | JIM FINUCAN’S BILL COLLECTING Q AND A, Issue 4Written by Jim Finucan
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What does your contract include? Do you offer a discount for quick payment? (Sometimes this is a good idea.) Do you specify a certain number of days after which account is considered delinquent? Is there a clause that allows you to add collection costs, attorney fees and interest if bill becomes delinquent? If not, those costs will come right out of your own pocket! And when a bill falls into delinquent category do you have a procedure to follow? If not you should have such a procedure and you should be sure to follow through on it. (I’ll deal with this topic in a later article.) Despite delinquent accounts it sounds like 2001 was a great year for you. I wish you an even more successful 2002.
Jim Finucan is a 13-year collections veteran who has doubled the annual gross collections at every firm he has been associated with. His book “Past Due A Collections Manual” will show you how you can achieve the same results. http://www.tiare.com/pastdue.htm
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