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A Commodity Fund to Track Global Coal Price

The accompanying table contains a summary and statistics for 16 ETFI global equity indexes and two commodity pool fund ideas, with the short/inverse and defensive themes outpacing the overall market averages over the past year in the midst of ongoing market turmoil around the world.

Although currently out of favor with investors, new commodity pool fund ideas include timber and coal. The CoalFund is a commodity pool that is structured to track the performance of exchange-traded, near-month futures contracts

Yesterday, I went into my backyard to grill some tasty treats, as it was a pleasant evening and...well...grilled food be good. As I cleaned out my Weber to start my fire, I went into my shed to pick up some fuel for the fire - and lo and behold nothing was there. My coal was stolen.

I figured, why steal coal now? I mean, coal shares are in the midst of a nasty correction. Why in the world would anyone want to try to catch that falling knife?  In such a situation most people would have just went out and bought more charcoal, but not me. I had a hunger - but not for burgers.

In a tough tape on Friday Coal related stocks performed above average and look to continue to run with profitable expectations growing. Massey Energy (MEE), Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) and Arch Coal (ACI) all have rising earnings expectations and are at 52 week highs. Just this past Monday, a broker, David Khani from FBR Capital Markets raised his price guidance for coal for next couple of years.

After a hiatus, energy stocks have returned to the top of the charts with coal stocks leading the way. The top 10% of performing industries for last week were:

Filed under: Newsletters, Commodities, Oil, Stocks to Buy

"Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) is fired up from its first quarter earnings; the results were well above analysts expectations," notes Joseph Hargett.

And with 13.5 million shares of the stock sold short, the analyst with Schaeffer's Research explains, "Shorts account for about 9.5% of the stock's float, which could result in a short squeeze." Here is his review.

"Net income nearly tripled to $81.1 million, or 56 cents per share. Revenue for the auarter rose to $699.4 million from $571.3 million. For the year, Arch Coal lifted its earnings esti

Funny, just 2 weeks ago Arch Coal (ACI) reiterated guidance but it was taken as a "warning" by the skittish herd on Wall Street [Apr 7: Arch Coal "Warns"]; the stock dropped to $47 where I added to my stake (some of which I sold the next day up $4).<!--more--> Now the stock is in the $62s after a strong earnings report. I continue to be a huge bull on this space which I outlined last fall as the forgotten commodity [Sept 13: Crude at $80? What to Buy]

If you are new to coal, a series of posts here [Dec 6: Coal Stocks Quietly in a Bull Market]- while this group will be subject to a selloff w