Physically-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in base metals will not affect prices in the medium to long term because investors will sell back to the market if tightness appears, according to research by Goldman Sachs

Now that the dust has settled on another LME week, perhaps it’s worth having a look at some of the topics that were exercising the industry’s minds in London last week. The one area where there seemed to be almost total agreement was that prices still seem to be locked in a bull phase. But don’t get me wrong; that doesn’t mean everybody I chatted with was rampagingly bullish. Alongside those who take the view that commodity asset values can only go up, I found a surprising number who, almost despairingly, agreed that standing in front of the freight train of the current market was not an option.

Lord Copper has done well to draw attention to the groundswell of interest in ETFs in commodities, and particularly metals. It's easy enough to see why the financial whizz-kids are interested in metals - they're going up and the prospects are for them to go on going up. This is an ideal background for persuading your clients to go long of metals.

Within the last few weeks, ETF Securities, one of the principal sponsors of exchange-traded funds, has been admitted as a non-member account holder in LMEsword, the warrant depositary system

In MB’s latest poll on future copper prices, 55% of respondents forecast that three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange will be above $8,000 per tonne by the end of this month. But even as traders on the LME talked of the upward momentum in base metals, copper prices have plunged twice in recent days. Prices fell sharply on Tuesday and again on Thursday, when moves on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were so sharp and sudden that they took traders in Asia aback. To them, for a short time, it looked like the flash crash that galvanized US equity dealers earlier this year.

There’s an entertaining spat going on between two of Russia’s premier resource companies: Norilsk Nickel and United Co Rusal

China has taken what appears to be a harder line in its drive to force older smelters and furnaces out of the market: blacklisting, and sanctions.

The more I look at the current state of the metal markets, the more convinced I am that Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole, journey through the looking glass and afternoon tea with the Hatter and March Hare were, in comparison, more rational

I return again to the subject of electronic and algorithmic trading. Let me start by saying I have no interest in turning the clock back, nor am I indulging in rose-tinted hindsight

Lord Copper is a veteran London Metal Exchange trader. Email to give him your view. The business of warehousing metals is a fascinating one. And yes, I do realise that statement makes me sound like someone who stands on train platforms in an anorak, holding a notebook and a thermos flask. But some of the world’s […]