Edward Meir, formerly of MF Global and now of INTL FCStone, has scooped first place on the overall leaderboard for price forecasts in base metals during 2011, with 95.8% accuracy across all six.

Metal Bulletin has been tracking the forecasts of base metal analysts against the subsequent performance of prices on the London Metal Exchange for over a year. Here, we bring you the overall leaderboard for 2011, which shows the five most accurate analysts across all six base metals, as well as the 2011 leaderboards for aluminium, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc.

The metals research team at Deutsche Bank took second place on the overall Apex leaderboard for price forecasts in base metals during 2011, with 94.1% accuracy across all six base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange.

Deutsche Bank is advising clients to look at trading pairs of metals, instead of taking a single position, in order to mitigate risk as volatility in the global economy continues.

Price forecasts for base metals are becoming less and less credible and are not a market driving force, as short term volatility continues to overshadow trading movements, Edward Meir, senior commodity analyst at INTL FCStone, told Metal Bulletin

Aluminium prices are likely to perform relatively well in the coming year, while nickel will be neutral, analysts at Citigroup told Metal Bulletin.

The third week of calendar year 2012 went off frantically as far the metal markets go.

After recording 17.3% losses on its recommendation to buy June 2012 LME copper, Goldman Sachs has ‘reset’ its long call on the market at the December 19 price of $7,274 per tonne.

It’s that time of year again – the time to look back at what happened in 2011, and, maybe, try to understand.

New platforms and new types of content will enable Metal Bulletin to provide its subscribers with information in ways that are fresh and revealing.