Monday, 16 August 2010

Commodity ETF tracks Dynamic Total Return Commodity Index

United States Commodity Index Fund has been launch August 2010, tracking the SummerHaven Dynamic Commodity Index. 14 contracts are selected on a monthly basis from a possible 27. The index was created by two professors from Yale. It's an "algo" (rules-based). Powershares also have a commodity index fund. iShares also have an ETF tracking S&P GSCI index, allowing broad-based exposure to commodities.

There is concern that such products distort the market and encourage front-running. US Commodity Funds is already famous for USO and UNG. The strategy is to invest in futures that exhibit backwardation (an "anti-contago" strategy). It is reminiscent of the "size effect" in equities.

In other innovations, PowerShares has already released a product to track Ultra-T-bond futures on CBOT (where you can leverage up or down three times). It applies their "monthly leverage rebalancing methodology to fixed-income products".

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