The “Natural Resources” sub-category in ETFs has expanded nicely over the years, with five individual products populating this space currently according to most industry data sources.
IGE (iShares S&P N.A. Natural Resources, Expense Ratio, 0.48%) is the largest fund in the space in terms of assets under management, with north of $1.8 billion currently, followed by GUNR (FlexShares Morningstar Global Upstream Natural Resources, Expense Ratio, 0.48%).
Rounding out the space are GNR (SPDR S&P Global Natural Resources, Expense Ratio, 0.40%), GRES (IndexIQ Global Resources, Expense Ratio 0.75%), and GNAT (WisdomTree Global Natural Resources, Expense Ratio 0.58%). [Equal-Weighted Commodity ETF]
IGE and GRES have the most seasoning in terms of live performance data in the space, and GRES has displayed an impressive advantage in terms of head to head performance during this period (11/09 which was GRES inception to present), while comparatively, GUNR, GNR, and GNAT are relatively newer launches to the market.
Each of these aforementioned funds has a different index methodology but a common aim, to provide exposure to publicly traded companies that have exposure to natural resources, including Livestock, Precious Metals, Grains, Food, Fiber, Energy, Industrial Metals, Timber, Water, and Coal for instance, often including both U.S. listed as well as foreign listed ordinary shares.