Investing with Exchange-Traded Funds Made Easy: A Start-to-Finish Plan to Reduce Costs and Achieve Higher Returns, Second Edition

Chapter 15. The Hottest Investments Around: Commodity ETFs

Up until now, we have been discussing stocks and bonds, which are tied to individual corporations. In recent years, a different type of investment has come to the fore: investments in commodities. Commodities are physical raw materials or agricultural products. Following are examples of the numerous commodities in which investors can trade:

• Energy—. Crude oil, gasoline, natural gas

• Agricultural products—. Wheat, corn, soybeans

• Industrial metals—. Copper, aluminum

• Precious metals—. Gold, silver, platinum

Trading in commodities has been around for decades and was especially popular in the 1970s. Because the 1970s were years of high inflation, commodity prices were strong. Indeed, they performed ...