stocks & shares isa

mcneiliee

hi i was wandering if you could buy commodities in an isa i.e soya wheat sugar ect & i have a stocks & shares isa with bestinvest don't like them to much can the funds be transfered to another provider the funds are through cofunds
thanks

cheerfulcat

It's not possible AFAIK for an individual to buy commodities as such but there are a couple of funds which invest in commodities, including "soft" ones like wheat and sugar. It's also possible to buy shares in companies which produce, for example, palm oil or orange juice. For oil and precious metals there are both individual shares and funds to choose from, as well as covered warrants, which are allowed into an ISA. The covered warrants are quite difficult to get to grips with, though, and it's probably best sticking with a fund or investment trust. The traditional way to get exposure is by trading futures but that is a pretty risky business and in any case I don't think it's possible within an ISA.

You can certainly move your funds elsewhere if you are not happy with your ISA provider; just make sure that you transfer them, rather than closing the ISA.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

mr_fishbulb

I don't understand commodities. Where is all this orange juice/coffee/pork bellies people buy? Where are they stored?

My only experience is from Trading Places

mcneiliee

thnks
for the info

just thought that as the energy & metal have shot up so could soft commodities as sugar has . SO could other soft commodities could be used for bio-fuels & i have noticed that younger chinese students are getting alot fatter than older students .One was so fat she busted one of the seats

so buy LARD it's gona shoot up

cheerfulcat

mr_fishbulb wrote:

I don't understand commodities. Where is all this orange juice/coffee/pork bellies people buy? Where are they stored?

My only experience is from Trading Places

Hi, mr_fishbulb,

It's not stored; traders are buying futures, the contracts are for delivery later. In a lot of cases it's simply a gamble on the price of the underlying commodity, though there are of course customers for, say, coffee who can and do buy next year's production at this year's price. And of course producers can sell next year's production now. There is a very good introduction to the subject here.

mr_fishbulb

Thanks for the link. Going to have a read