Yahoo is a pretty good source for historical stock and ETF prices. For example, here's a link that will provide historical prices for the SPY ETF :
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?a=10&b=19&c=2008&d=08&e=10&f=2011&g=d&s=spy
The link at the bottom allows one-page downloads of CSV content, or you can try this link :
I had an earlier article about how diversifying into commodities can give higher total returns with lower volatility.
But now the question is, how should one invest in commodities? Do like my high school physics professor who bought a bunch of copper tubing during the Jimmy Carter memorial inflation of the early 1980s?
Lately, I've been looking to increase the diversification in my retirement portfolio by investing in both commodities AND long-term bonds.
Crazy? Aren't these diametrically opposed views? Commodities love inflation, just like long-term bonds hate inflation.
It's hard to say where inflation is headed, although at least relative to now it seems likely to go up. But how much more inflation can we expect, and more importantly, now much of that is already priced in long-term bond prices.
