Many Uses Of Commodity ETFs

Although many of the largest and most popular exchange-traded funds offer exposure to equities, it is another corner of the ETF market that has been primarily responsible for the impressive growth spurt that the industry has enjoyed over the last several years. In 2009, commodity ETFs saw cash inflows of more than $30 billion. Through the first six months of 2010 that pace had slowed considerably, but the cash flows are still impressive; more than $7.5 billion flowed into commodity ETFs in the first two quarters of the year. The tremendous interest in these products is relatively easy to understand. Prior to the rise of the ETF industry, commodities were beyond the reach of many investors. Trading futures contracts requires certain approvals, while physically storing commodities obviously involves some logistical obstacles. Moreover, maintaining commodity exposure through futures contracts requires ongoing monitoring and management that becomes time consuming (and expensive) for most [...] Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com. Related Stories: Ten Commodity ETFs Every Investor Should Know (But Most Don’t) Deutsche Bank Diversifies Commodity-Linked Funds The Next Generation Of Commodity ETFs?