Another risk with commodity trading is you might have to take ownership of the real stuff.  That incurs costs of delivery and storage, as well as delivery again when you finally do sell.  I've had friends who bought commodities, saw the price fall to where they didn't want to sell (wanted to wait for prices to rise again), only to run out of time and get killed on delivery and storage.

 

The "going off on your own" is probably the least risky of all of these, as long as you make a good plan and stay within your competencies.  It can include upgrading your education, which will usually pay off as long as you don't incur a mountain of debt doing it.

 

Well the welfare mentality on wall street thinking that the tax payer will bailout them again is stupid. Short sells should not be allowed ! Wall street should not have margin buys at all ! They should be cash and carry only.. The Glass Steagal act should be put back in place ! The too big to fail mantra on banks should be broken up ! The FEDs should raise int rates to 1.5% at the fed window on wall street! Stop all teh qe1, qe2 , qe3 BS NOW.. If wall street falls let the free market system rule the strong lives the weak die.. Thats the way wall street should be today .THATS CAPITALISM ..The Bush tax cuts expiring will only bring the rates to where they were ! They were to create jobs from the rich right? WELL a decade latter and guess what no jobs by the so called job creators ! If tax cuts work ? We would have unemployment at 2% TODAY.. THE FISCAL CLIFF NEEDS TO COME AND CONGRESS SHOULD not raise THE DEBT LIMIT! THAT WILL PUT THE BREAKS ON THE FEDS RUNNING THE PRINTING PRESSES FOR WALL STREETS FREE MONEY! And Congress out of control spending .And stop the devaluation of the US$ . Its time for wall street AND CONGRESS to live within its means like the rest of America. 16 trillion was good enough for 2012 ! It truly good enough for 2013.. Thats whay they call it a debt LIMIT people ! Do not listen to the pundits on the news and wall street pukes ! They just hate the thought of using their money!!!! And living in a truly free market ! What we have today on wall street is socialized wall street looking for a government bailout at every turn! Thats and this the way they have ran is NOT CAPITALISM folks its pure socialism on wall street! READ YOUR CONSTITUTION PEOPLE ! CONGRESS IS THE ONLY POWER TO TAX AND SPEND . ITS IN THE US CONSTITUTION READ IT YOU IDIOTS... TAKE A CIVICS CLASS AND LEARN AMERICA... STOP BELIEVING THE B.S.FROM FOX NEWS AND ALL THE OTHER IDIOTS OUT THERE..

When the Bush tax cuts expire on Dec31st you will see just what you voted for.  Each household with 2 children will get a $4,00.00 tax increase, $4,700.00 for 3 kids, plust 2% on their paychecks.  This is all before "Obamacare" even dips into your pocket.  That Fiscal Cliff everyone is talking about, we will fall off that cliff the 2nd of January 2013.  Economists are expecting the Stock Market to collapse & rocket ship us into another recession.  These tax increases are just awesome for this nations middle class!  OH WAIT!  Thats right, we are only going after the rich.  Thats the BS & lies that you fell for.  Good luck!