Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Commodities go out of fashion for wealthy

It was just a fashion!
For some reason I picture Beau Brummel trying to borrow enough money to make initial margin.
From Reuters:
Dabbling in commodities markets has fallen out of favor with the wealthy who are abandoning the sector in droves as energy and metal prices slide, private bankers say.

Commodity prices, which have surged for most of the past six years, have imploded over the last three months. Estimates by Citigroup and Barclays Capital put third-quarter losses in the asset class at between $50 billion and $60 billion.

"Commodities were in fashion at the beginning of the year and clients reduced their exposure mid-year," said Bruno Lebre, head of investment at SG Private Banking, adding he had been advising clients to limit energy and metals exposure in their portfolios....MORE

*Here's a caricature via Wikipedia:

1805 caricature of Brummell by Richard Dighton.
1805 caricature of Brummell
by Richard Dighton