Alternative Outlook

The World Gold Council (WGC) says China’s growing demand for the precious metal may double sooner than its original prediction of 2020 as both private and institutional investors move to increase their holdings as a hedge against international inflation concerns.

“The momentum is very strong and with what we’ve seen over the last few quarters, we would not be surprised if our forecast that we predicted last year could be achieved in a shorter period of time,” said Eily Ong, Investment Research Manager at the World Gold Council…

The UK’s new Green Investment Bank will have the freedom to raise up to £15bn on the capital markets in the years ahead, the government confirmed today, offering pension funds and other financial investors the chance to participate in sustainable infrastructure projects from 2015.

Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, said yesterday the bank would be set up under legislation to guarantee its “independence and enduring nature” as an institution, giving investors confidence. The government has committed £3bn in funding, and hopes to rai…

Farmland values could “plummet” in the US ” potentially by one-half ” if the market supports of low interest rates and high crop prices crumble, the US central bank has warned, heightening concerns over the market boom.

Record farmland prices, which in the Midwest increased at their fastest in 32-years in the first three months of 2011, appears rational as long as borrowing costs remain low, reducing investors’ hurdle rates for returns, while elevated crop values keep actual profits high.

“Current farmland values reflect high farm…

Investors and financial advisers may be elated that the S&P 500 has almost doubled since it bottomed in March 2009, but that improvement hasn’t erased the memories of 2008.

The 1,600 advisers at the annual Investment Management Consultants Association conference last week clearly were more interested in ways to reduce risks to their clients’ portfolios than finding them returns.

“It may not have been on purpose, but the theme of this conference turned out to be the mitigation of portfolio risk,” said Frank Campanale, vice chairman…

The impact of value and brand focused purchasing of investment wine in China has led to a price growth spurt in five First Growths – Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton and Haut Brion.

Throughout the closing months of 2010 Albany Portfolio Management predicted the success of these brands after paying close attention to the performance and buying behaviours of customers in the Asia region, which differ significantly to the traditional vintage focused purchasing of the West.

The pronounced difference in price between Lafite and the other…

Investment was the key driver for the gold market in Q1 2011, as demand grew by 26% to 310.5 mt from 245.6 mt in Q1 2010, according to the latest Trends report issued by the World Gold Council Thursday.

In value terms, investment demand was $13.8 billion.

The main growth came from bar and coin demand, which increased by 52% year on year, to 366.4 mt.

In value terms, this represented a near doubling of demand to $16.3 billion from $8.6 billion in Q1 2010.

“Chinese appetite for gold has increased rapidly over the past few years. In Ma…

For adventurous investors, the most wide-ranging pension to suit exotic tastes is without question a self-invested personal pension.

From buying your own office and investing in unquoted shares to CFD trading and even buying a domain name, there isn’t much you can’t do with a SIPP.

There are around 150 providers in the UK, all offering varying investment choice and pricing models. Low-cost SIPPs, or ‘SIPP-lite’, often provided by online stockbrokers or insurers, have a smaller investment range and can be indistinguishable from perso…

After the Internet bubble of the late 1990s and the real estate bubble that raged from 2000 to 2007, many market observers are quick to call a bubble whenever a specific asset class experiences a significant rise in price.

For investors already in gold, or those considering adding exposure to gold, they must first answer the question, “Is gold in a bubble?”

***To answer this question, let’s define what creates a bubble. Simply put, bubbles are the result of too much investment in a specific asset…

U.S. farmland values continued to climb in the first quarter, with the price of cropland in the heart of the Great Plains rising 20% in the first quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said Friday.

The gain in cropland values versus a year ago was led by increases in Nebraska and Kansas, where nonirrigated land values jumped 24%, the Fed said. The bank’s district also includes Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming and parts of New Mexico and Missouri.

Rising farmland prices nationwide have followed a broad boom in the agricultural …

A divisive debate over the green credentials of biofuels has stalled investment and threatens the future of some producers, but could also create lucrative opportunities, according to European companies.

Background
‘Indirect land-use change’ means that if you take a field of grain and switch the crop to biofuel, somebody somewhere will go hungry unless those missing tonnes of grain are grown elsewhere.

Economics often dictates that the crops to make up the shortfall come from tropical zones, and so encourage farmers to carve out new…