Top Takes From Real Money

The RealMoney contributors are in the business of trading and investing all day on the basis of ongoing news flow. Below, we offer the top five ideas that RealMoney contributors posted today and how they played those ideas.

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1. Soymeal Real Deal

By Howard Simons
1:20 p.m. EDT

I mentioned yesterday how the USDA crop estimates underscore the ongoing rally in corn and soybeans. Today old crop soymeal is limit-up, with its price having gone from just over $250 per ton in early March to $433 per ton today.

Soymeal shows up everywhere in your kitchen, whether as a direct food additive or as the high-protein feed mix for poultry and livestock. The jump in relative food inflation and the compression of food-processor margins will be real.

No positions

2. Long Bond Auction Extremely Good

By Tom Graff
1:14 p.m. EDT

Go figure. The 10-year auction yesterday was terrible. Today's long bond auction goes great. It looked like it was going to be 4.80% just before the auction, but came in at 4.72%. I can't remember such a large miss to the upside on a long bond auction.

Bid/cover was 2.68, which is the best we've seen all year for the long bond. Indirect bids (which is an indicator of foreign buying) was a whopping 49%. That's the best since the first re-opening of the long bond in 2006.

Interesting to note that the 10-year is having an even better day than the long bond. I'm still short UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury ProShares(TBT Quote) but might take some profits for now and see if another entry point comes my way.

Short TBT.