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Originally posted by InfX708:
Way back in college, I remember taking a class on Agricultural Economics and the whole market thing was sort of explained. Now I wish I had listened a little better. Looks like there is some money to be made (and paid) in the whole thing. Anyone have some experience in it?
Trading commodities is a dangerous game. Most traders don't make money doing this... however some people make a *lot* of money. I've heard statistics saying that only 25% of commodity traders turn a profit.

It isn't like trading standard equities. When you invest in most commodities you can't just buy 10K bushels of corn at 3.00 and hang on to it like you can your MSFT stock until it's worth $X and then sell. If the price falls and the contract comes up, well... you've gotta cash out.

You need to be much more aware of the markets when trading commodities than stocks. If you don't understand the market, what makes it move, and what indicators to watch for you will lose money. Trading stocks, you can pretty much get in it for the long haul and have a very high chance of making good profits.

Go to the exchanges. They all have good education sections. (CBOT, CME (GLOBEX), NYMEX are the big ones in Ag and Energy in the US).