Things I Wonder About

I posted this a couple of years ago on the old Daily Squawk page when I was trying to post each day. Since then I've taken the page down. I was thinking about this the other day and after looking it up, I figured I'd update the info and move it to this page.

The price of gold. Why is gold so valuable? I recently found an article that helps put it perspective. This is one of those Believe It Not things. All the gold in the world for all time would fit into a 66 foot cube. Yup, ALL THE GOLD IN THE WORLD would fit into a smallish six storey office building or would cover a Canadian football field to a depth of 3.27 feet.

The price of oil. Compared to gold at about $1,640. an ounce, what is the value of an ounce of oil? Well, Professor Google tells me that a barrel of oil weighs about 305 pounds, give or take for purity. That's 4,880 ounces. At the current price of $98. per barrel, an ounce of oil is valued at about 2 cents.

The volume of each. Another bit of math for gold is that all the gold in the world would fit into 8,187 cubic meters. That's all the gold for all time. By comparison, the world's daily consumption of oil at 80 million barrels would fill 12,718,400 cubic meters. That's every single day! ...just in case you were wondering too.

April Showers Bring May ???

Who the heck knows where this crazy, volatile market is heading?  Is this the May to go away?  I dunno.

What I do know is that the TSX has become a real laggard. It's up .69% to the end of April. In the US, the DOW 30 is up 6.58% and the broader S&P 500 is up a whopping 9.46%. This might be the year to have a little faith in the good ol' US of A. Might be. Me, I'm not so sure. Corporate earning seem to be ticking along, but is this sustainable?  With deficit and debt levels at all time highs? Some believe that individual states may eventually default. I suppose the ultimate pessimist may even believe that the whole US may some day soon crash and burn. Me, I doubt that but still am happy to keep my investments here in Canada.

By the by, my stuff is up 3.92% YTD. Not a bunch, but 3.92% for four months annulizes to 11.76%. I'd be happy with that. I'll report back at year end and let you know how that worked out.

As Always, Good Luck & Happy Investing!