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In late October I travelled to the US and Canada on a business trip that was exclusively dedicated to timberland investments. I had an opportunity to meet with a number of investment managers and some investors into the asset class, tour the timberland both in the South and in the Pacific Northwest, and collected a dearth of data, both from conversations and in print. It would take a multi page report to describe everything I learned, but I just wanted to outline some topics that I felt were of particular interest, and draw some parallels with other alternative asset classes.

The main drivers of the precious metal prices The prices of gold and platinum are closely correlated, but there are certain differences between their movement. As a lot of investors are apparently paying close attention to these metals as alternative investment, I tried to summarize the main drivers behind the rising prices. Gold: 1. Safe heaven for the US dollar holders 2. Increasing demand from Asian emerging middle class, particularly India (c. 20% of the world demand) 3. Decrease in annual production, to a large extent due to energy supply problems in South Africa Platinum: 1. Alternative asset for equity investors (also holds for gold) 2. Increased use in environmentally-friendly technologies, for instance hybrid cars 3. Decrease in annual production, to a large extent due to energy supply problems in South Africa, which produces up to 80% of the world output Seems like the high prices are going to be sustained for a while... For the reference, links to gold and platinum price quo...