Commodities Fund

meinnit

Does anyone know the holdings of ETFS All Commodities DJ-AIGCI (AGCP)?

Also I can't seem to find a website that will compare the past performance of this ETF and MFM iFunds ETF Commodity?

purch

http://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/index.cfm?event=showAigWeightings

Will take you to the Dow Jones Index website, and the weightings for that particular Index

I doubt whether you will be able to find anywhere that can give you a direct comparison between the two.

meinnit

purch wrote: »

http://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/index.cfm?event=showAigWeightings

Will take you to the Dow Jones Index website, and the weightings for that particular Index

I doubt whether you will be able to find anywhere that can give you a direct comparison between the two.

Thanks so much for that! Looked for it everywhere!!

meinnit

Is there any site that will at least show me the percentage change for both since January? All I can seem to find is price change.

purch

For those who don't know the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the United States Senate is currently in session and taking testimony from many involved in the Securities, Credit & Commodity markets concerning recent events in those markets.

These 'hearings' should be of interest to anyone investing in the markets, and the current 'hearings' on the Commodity markets are another warning to anyone who is 'jumping' into these areas without regard to the consequences. It is pretty obvious from current price action that the Commodity Futures markets are not functioning in the way that they were intended to function, which is essentially as a hedging mechanism for Commodity producers and consumers. In the long term it is in nobody's interests if Commodity producers go 'bust' or cannot operate and produce essential commodity's such as food properly. I think that some kind of Government intervention into these markets is likely, and these Senate 'hearings' are just the starting point.

This excerpt is from the testimony of Michael W. Masters Managing Member/Portfolio Manager Masters Capital Management LLC.

As money pours into the markets, two things happen concurrently: the markets expand and prices rise.
One particularly troubling aspect of Index Speculator demand is that it actually increases the more prices increase. This explains the accelerating rate at which commodity futures prices (and actual commodity prices) are increasing. Rising prices attract more Index Speculators, whose tendency is to increase their allocation as prices rise. So their profit-motivated demand for futures is the inverse of what you would expect from price-sensitive consumer behavior.
Prices have increased the most dramatically in the first quarter of 2008. We calculate that Index Speculators flooded the markets with $55 billion in just the first 52 trading days of this year. That's an increase in the dollar value of outstanding futures contracts of more than $1 billion per trading day. Doesn't it seem likely that an increase in demand of this magnitude in the commodities futures markets could go a long way in explaining the extraordinary commodities price increases in the beginning of 2008?
There is a crucial distinction between Traditional Speculators and Index Speculators: Traditional Speculators provide liquidity by both buying and selling futures. Index Speculators buy futures and then roll their positions by buying calendar spreads. They never sell. Therefore, they consume liquidity and provide zero benefit to the futures markets.
It is easy to see now that traditional policy measures will not work to correct the problem created by Index Speculators, whose allocation decisions are made with little regard for the supply and demand fundamentals in the physical commodity markets. If OPEC supplies the markets with more oil, it will have little affect on Index Speculator demand for oil futures. If Americans reduce their demand through conservation measures like carpooling and using public transportation, it will have little affect on Institutional Investor demand for commodities futures.
Index Speculators' trading strategies amount to virtual hoarding via the commodities futures markets. Institutional Investors are buying up essential items that exist in limited quantities for the sole purpose of reaping speculative profits.
Think about it this way: If Wall Street concocted a scheme whereby investors bought large amounts of pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices in order to profit from the resulting increase in prices, making these essential items unaffordable to sick and dying people, society would be justly outraged.
Why is there not outrage over the fact that Americans must pay drastically more to feed their families, fuel their cars, and heat their homes?

meinnit

I've always wondered how ethical these agriculture funds are. I suppose this explains the current fluctuations in oil prices.