Commodities are all the rage lately.  How are they doing?  Generally, they are ahead for the year-to-date period. The energy commodity funds are leading the pack. The broad based commodity funds GSG, DJP and DBC, which we reviewed in some detail in a prior article, show middling performance.  The other narrow scope commodity funds are generally doing less well than the broad based funds. On a three-month basis, the narrow scope funds are generally in negative territory. Many of the funds currently have too few assets under management and too little trading volume to warrant investment.

For mental health reasons, we hardly ever watch CNBC anymore. But glancing at it this afternoon, at one point we saw three separate live graphics displaying the price of crude oil. So much screen space was taken up by live oil trackers, there wasn’t enough space left to show the chart of whatever alternative energy company they were pumping.

Was oil making a new high today? Did the U.S. unilaterally attack another country?  Did someone accidentally double-park in the Strait of Hormuz?  No.

If you feel like it’s been impossible to get away from oil and oil-related stories for too many years to count, that’s because you’re right. The CXO blog has a nice report up on a momentum-based sector investing strategy, and as they explain, the primary reason the strategy massively outperforms the S&P over the

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Commodities have become an accepted asset class for a significant portion of investors. Ibbotson has performed studies showing that commodities are a beneficial asset class addition to a portfolio.

The ETF/ETN providers have created convenient and low cost ways to invest in a diversified basket of commodities. This article looks at the the iPath ETN (DJP), the PowerShares ETF (DBC) and the iShares ETF (GSG). There are other broad index commodity funds, but at this time DJP, DBC and GSG are the most liquid.

The index differences, underlying assets differences, and entity structure differences create materially different gross total returns and tax liabilities.

The performance charts that follow are linked to the Yahoo Finance site and are up-to-date (daily), even past the date of this publication.

PERFORMANCE

One-Year Chart Comparing DJP, DBC and GSG:

Three-Month Chart Comparing DJP, DBC and GSG:

OTHER LINKED DATA:

You

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