Portfolio managers these days have more alternatives than ever to choose from in the ETF landscape, especially in the area of commodities. Today, we focus on a staple that is familiar to commodity traders but likely is not a household name among most others.
Soybeans can now be accessed via an ETF, specifically via Teucrium Soybean Fund (NYSEArca: SOYB), which launched in September of 2011 and averages about 10,000 shares traded daily.
The product is structured as an ETF that invests in underlying soybeans futures contracts, and the issuer especially designed the methodology in order to mitigate the effects of contango and backwardation in the futures markets that tend to erode ETF investor returns in many commodity ETFs over time.
Soybeans have long had their importance as an agricultural commodity as uses for the legume range from soy vegetable oil, to soy milk, tofu, and livestock feed. Since inception, SOYB is up 0.69%, and year to date, the ETF has rallied an impressive 12.06%.
Trading volume has picked up considerably over the past several weeks, and there also have been a few instances of erratic “prints” hitting the tape at prices that are significantly detached from the real underlying value of the ETF at the time of these trades (for example, last Thursday as well as in the middle of June).