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Jim Roemer
Mon Apr 26, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
If you think predicting the weather is tricky, try predicting commodity markets. Hi, I'm
Bryan Yeaton from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather
Notebook.
Jim Roemer has managed to do both successfully. He was a TV meteorologist in the
Midwest during the mid-'80s, when someone suggested he use his weather
knowledge to invest in commodities ... like coffee, corn and heating oil. Roemer
entered a contest to determine if his weather foresight would be an asset.
JM: I entered this contest with a couple thousand dollars, made 10 times my money in
two weeks. The next thing I knew, I had people all over the world trying to raise money
from me and I was the only meteorologist really in the world at that time back in the
mid-'80s that was actually handling other people's money and investing it in various
commodities.
Although he had no business background, he started managing the money of small
local farmers at first, and then eventually brokerage firms in commodity markets. Now,
the connection between weather and commodities isn't as strange as it might sound
because commodities react to weather events such as drought and frost.
JM: For example, (in) 1993, we had one of the worst freezes in 20 or 30 years in South
America and the price of coffee went up substantially. A $2,000 investment in an option,
a call option in coffee, could have yielded a person about $30-40,000 in two
weeks.
But after being in the business for 15 years, he has one piece of advice that everyone
can use in whatever market they decide to invest in: don't risk more than you have in
the bank, especially on the weather.
Our show is underwritten by Subaru with major support provided by the National
Science Foundation. Visit our website at www.weathernotebook.org.
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