Email of the day
Comment of the Day

November 30 2012

Commentary by David Fuller

Email of the day

On palladium (one of several which are quite similar):
"Hello and welcome back. Hope you are feeling stronger each day.

"You have been bullish on PM for a long time and in a recent post you said you were particularly bullish in palladium. I have never followed it closely but, why have you stressed this metal over its cousins? I wonder if it is a mater of charts or anything else? Thank you very much for your thoughts. Best wishes to all of you."

David Fuller's view Thanks, I unexpectedly missed 6 days but it felt like an eternity, so I am very glad to be back.

Palladium has been a good relative performer of late, although this is certainly not always the case. That is probably what I was referring to recently. Palladium is also the most expensive PM to trade, at least in terms of spread-bets. For instance, IG currently quotes a 3-point spread for palladium, even though it is considerably cheaper than platinum which has a 2-point dealing spread. Volatile silver usually has a 3-point spread or slightly less. Gold is the cheapest to deal in as it is widely traded and therefore usually has a 0.6-point spread.

As Palladium is usually the least actively traded precious metals future contract, it attracts less high-frequency trading (HFT). If my overall bullish view proves to be correct in the months ahead, I will continue to hold all four PMs. Performance is likely to vary, particularly in the short term. This creates opportunities to take some profits where strong gains have occurred, or to buy after setbacks. I do not do this as often as I should because I have less time and interest in hovering over my trades.

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