Time to leave forest, metal, iron, steel and all types of mining companies

Oldman answered 3 months ago …

I don't believe that demand for the commodities wil go down significantly. The prices of the companis' shares may be volatile, but long-term holdings of companies in these sectors that pay dividends, is a way to accumulate a fortune! When land and timber are cheap, you buy , because they don't really make more land (except for Dubai and the Netherlands) and timber has out-performed every other sector over the last 120 years.
Today, or this past month, the share values of Plum Creek and Weyerhauser, have been rather strong, despite a slowdown in construction and building sales.

Pure land holdings have been the basis of many private fortunes, but they held them for generations. One in the SW U.S. has a book value of 450-500/acre, but when it sells the land it gets >20,000/acre.

The tension between the Asian steel makers and the giant iron-ore miners is an ongoing phenomenon...and it doesn't matter that RIO or Vale or BHP shares are up or down, but what is the long-term trend.

If you want to take short-term profits and wait to reinvest, the market timers have a poor record, and trading costs can be large. When a company like Southern Copper (PCU) has a temporary labor problem, Grupo Mexico, which is an extended family whose income comes from PCU's dividends, works hard to renegotiate with Peruvian miners...unlke the Russian mobs and oligarchs who try to hold BP to ransom..

So, given the broad geopolitical issues, would you rather speculate on the next Hot trend, or buy shares of well-run and dividend-paying companies?