Consequently, investors can cover the broad commodities space through related ETFs. For instance, the GreenHaven Continuous Commodity Index Fund (NYSEArca: GCC), PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (NYSEArca: DBC), iPath Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return ETN (NYSEArca: DJP) and iShares GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (NYSEArca: GSG) provide broad exposure to commodities. [Commodity ETFs Provide Diversification and Protect Against Inflation]
GCC follows an equal-weight methodology that covers 17 commodity positions. DBC, the largest commodity-related ETF, tracks a broad basket of the 14 most heavily traded commodities and uses an optimum yield methodology that tries to limit the negative effects of contango. DJP is an exchange traded note that tracks the Bloomberg Commodity Index Total Return. Lastly, GSG tracks the widely observed S&P GSCI Total Return Index. It should be noted that these broad commodity ETFs also include a heavy tilt toward the downtrodden energy market.
Additionally, investors may also gain direct exposure to specific commodities through ETFs. For instance, for gold exposure, the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD), iShares Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU) and ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (NYSEArca: SGOL) are all backed by physical gold bars stored in New York, London or Swiss vaults.
For more information on the commodities market, visit our commodity ETFs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.