Hi, Erich

In following your daily updates, I also feel your frustration with this "no-commit" in soy - and no, there is no major report due out that you missed. Unless, of course, we're talking South American weather reports, which seem to be flip-flopping, because it's that time of year when the weather seasonals are critical to the projected size of their new crops. Also, interesting chatter recently about the currency exchange rates between US Dollar and Brazilian Real.

Here, again, we appear to be feeling the impact of those "emerging funds" that I have been following. There appears to be a real tug-of-war going on between them and our traditional trading approaches to markets like these. Current "wisdom" says Soy should be cheaper because of burdensome supplies, but the funds don't care about those things. The price on any given day depends upon whether the funds are in a buying mood. I'm beginning to hate those guys! But I know that we simply have to learn to deal with their floundering around, and I just keep trying to focus on the S&R lines to give me guidance. I'll probably go with your Bean Meal trade today. Meal will follow Beans, and the risk is $150 cheaper than Beans - thank you for that!!

By the way, for those who may have an interest in this sort of thing, I'm pasting a few little "snippets" of things I picked up in the market chatter.

. March soybeans stayed in a range, reportedly restrained by forecasts for some light rain in Argentina later this week. There was also talk the USDA could estimate an even higher carryover in Friday’s Oilseed Outlook. Basically, South America remains on track for a big crop and US supplies
are likely to remain very burdensome so the upside should hinge on whether the funds buy, i.e., rebalance into cheaper ag markets. They don’t care there’s a reason soybeans are cheap.

SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--With each passing day, Brazil's soy producers grow
more reluctant to sell, frustrating exporters who know that a weak U.S. dollar
is hurting business.

The dollar is currently worth 2.14 Brazilian reals, falling from Monday's
close of BRL2.15 and previous closes of BRL2.17 as record exports keep bringing
in a surplus of dollar bills into the Brazilian economy.

Demand from commodity funds has exploded over the last three years, and
"without them the soy market right now would be $5 to maybe $5.50 a bushel,"
said Raul Cutait, a trader at Coimex in Sao Paulo.

Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected Feb. 9 that Brazil
would become the No. 1 soy exporter in 2006, selling 26.07 million tons of
soybeans, the local reaction is that an unfavorable exchange rate will squeeze
profit margins for both soy exporters and farmer alike, possibly leading to a
reduction in soy planting area in the 2006-07 season. soy," Cutait said of the 2006-07 crop.

Anyway, these are the things I read about in the wee hours of the morning when I've got nothing to do except....read about things!

Good $$$$ to us,

Joe