Book Review: Commodities Rising by Jeffrey M. Christian

Commodities Rising is an excellent, hype-free primer on the commodities markets. Mr. Christian, who heads CPM Group, a commodities research firm that provides consulting and investment banking services to individuals, institutions, and corporations, and international organizations. Christian does not believe that we are in a commodities supercycle. I do not agree with these thesis, but I appreciate the thoroughness of his arguments and his long-term perspective on the markets.
The book does an excellent job with providing a general overview of the various ways in which to participate in the commodities markets, i.e. futures, forwards, stocks, ETFs, etc. The author shares two particularly interesting insights about the commodities markets. First, they are filled with misinformation and outright lies. The commodities markets are assymetric as regards information. Secondly, most transactions take place in the cash market in the form of forwards, not the futures market deliveries. The weakness of this book is that there is very little in the way of concrete counsel on how to profit from commodities. He offers no specific companies that he particularly likes, nor trading or options strategies. Also, it can be a bit repetitive and boastful of the author's intelligence and experience.