Tim Treadgold

It’s not often you can easily pick the best or worst investment on the stock market. Right now, however, the worst stands out like sore thumb.

Australia’s great grape glut is causing wine producers no end of pain. But in Western Australia there seems to be a variation emerging on that theme – the great grape shortage.

If a man in a pub offered to sell you the Sydney Harbour Bridge for $50,000, would you write out a cheque on the spot?

Steel, in case hot-headed speculators playing the Australian stock market had not noticed, is essentially made by blending two materials – iron ore and coal, with a bit of limestone tossed in, plus nickel and other stuff for speciality steels.

‘Everyone makes money in a boom’ and ‘every deal is a winner’ are statements that ought to be consigned to that list of other great lies, such as the ‘cheque is in the mail’ – a point that close observers of the deals of 2005 will have noted.

It's difficult for young investors to see financial booms as the events that sow the seeds of financial busts.

‘Unintended consequences’ is one of those marvellous expressions which, when translated, simply means we have no idea what will happen after we change the rules.

Buying local is a good thing when shopping for fruit and vegetables, but not necessarily a wise investment policy.

In the future, probably closer to the year 2020 than today, there might be an iron ore mine on the Shovelanna tenement co-worked by a small company called Cazaly Resources.

Some Perth investors with an eye on BHP Billiton will be hoping for an insight into the company when they toddle along to its annual meeting in Perth tomorrow (Friday November 25)

It's a shame that Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay are not writing any more of their Yes Minister books.

To list, or not to list? That is the question facing Australian resource company executives as they contemplate doing business in the capital of mining finance, London.

Peak Oil is a hot topic in the petroleum business, and one that worries government because of the pain being felt at the bowser by voters.

TAKING the moral high ground can be a very expensive business, as the innocent small shareholders of Consolidated Minerals are discovering.

What's wrong with this equation?

Big fish in Perth’s small corporate pond pay a high price when they move to deeper waters.

Every speculator dreams of a 10-bagger, that legendary stock market winner that delivers a profit of 10 times the outlay.

It's not every day that a new, and successful, investment theory emerges.

THE experts say that a glass (or two) of wine a day is good for your health.

A funny thing happened on the stock market last week at the height of the confusion about the sale (or not) of the Government’s outstanding 51 per cent stake in Telstra.

It's a brave or foolish man prepared to criticise, however mildly, a company that has just reported the biggest profit in Australian business history.

If you are being tempted to play the new investment game sweeping Australia and dabble in a hedge fund investment, think again.

Given a choice when buying a commodity, such as bread or milk, the overwhelming consideration for most shoppers is price.

Last week’s Diggers & Dealers bash left the 1,200 delegates and countless hangers-on, including a healthy contingent of media types, in no doubt that this boom has legs to go an awful long way.

Oil at $US60 a barrel is a pain for motorists, producing petrol prices of $1.20 a litre and more.

The world of iron ore has taken a few peculiar turns in recent weeks – some good, some bad, and some distinctly odd.

The biggest guessing game on the Australian stock market today is whether we are, or are not, in a ‘super-cycle’, a prolonged period of rising commodity prices.

If you’re not in the mood for a touch of gloom, then go and read something else, because this week Briefcase is in a black mood.