In the commodities market, the trader's goal is to earn as much profit as possible.

Commodity traders derive substantial gains by taking advantage of considerable fluctuations in commodity price while using the well-known "buy low - sell high" principle. Much as is the case in equity markets, trading commoditiies comes with potential risk and considerably higher potential for ROI. It is essential to become familiar with the factors that affect prices and the levels of risk involved.

Why will companies dealing with ethanol increase within the next few years and why will Ethanol demand rise? It's almost impossible to find outside the Midwest. There is substantial opportunity for growth! Ethanol yields roughly 26% more energy than it takes to produce it, according to a just-published study by the University of California at Berkeley. That's because corn grows using free sunlight and because farming has gotten very efficient. Gasoline provides only about 84% of the energy required to produce it. After doubling in size, then doubling again the past few years, the ethanol industry consists of 95 U.S. plants that produced 4 billion gallons last year. That's only enough to replace 3% of the 140 billion gallons of gasoline the USA burned last year. And it's almost ridiculously far from the 119 billion gallons of ethanol necessary for a nationwide switch to E85. An additional 32 ethanol plants are under construction, and nine are being expanded. That will add about 1.8 billion more gallons annually but still leaves ethanol a bit player in the fuel game. "We need to get serious about making ethanol available," Ford Motor CEO Bill Ford says. He pledges to boost production of E85-compatible vehicles 25% this year, to 250,000. When beginning to enter the fuels and commodities market, it is crucial to prepare, much like a saavy investor spends hours analyzing a stock's fundamentals or technical data before investing in equity. One way to achieve such preparation is to first look at some key factors and recent newsworthy events related to the commodities that one wishes to deal with. In addition, it is also important to use a demo account with "virtual" money in order to get one's feet wet and get a sense for how the commodities really works. Why would you want to learn and experiment with your own capital when you can make mistakes and get some experience by using imaginary capital. You'll minimize your material damage considerably by getting some practical experience in this fashion. If you do your homework, you'll notice that there are many firms out there offering demo accounts on a trial basis to help you get a taste for what it is like to trade in commodities. Such demo accounts and proprietary software are usually available for free.

We wish you the best of luck in your trading endeavors.