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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Commodity Market Index Yields Diversity

By Derek Powell

Commodities are defined as crops that are grown, such as wheat and goods that are produced from the earth. On a daily basis these commodities are bought and sold; a record of these transactions is the commodity market index.

While there could be a high risk in commodity investing because you never know when a natural occurrence might affect a particular crop, the commodity market index levels that risk by dispersing it among various other commodity investments. With this approach, if the coffee crop is damaged by weather, another commodity, such as gold, might be performing better and balance out the loss.

If you prefer not to invest in the futures market, then you will find the commodity market index attractive. Commodities are available to all investors as they are traded on all the major exchanges. Choose either an active approach or a passive approach. The former allows you to base transactions on a strategy to outperform a future index and the latter allows you to adopt a passive role and try and match future performance.

Investing in commodities offers many advantages, among them the ability to have a diversified portfolio with protection against inflation. However, it is a fast-moving market, with prices fluctuating practically every minute. To obtain the most success in the commodity market index, many investors use charts to track the fast-moving market. There are several online resources that enable you to enter quotes for the various commodities so you can track their prices.

The commodity market index is a strategy often used by businesses for risk reduction. This enables them to balance price swings of a certain commodity that they buy on a regular basis to run their company.

Mutual fund investors use the commodity market index as a reliable forecaster. Some prefer mutual funds as there is less risk and expense as compared to traditional investing methods.

In a commodity market index, future and current market prices are displayed. The factors of production, liquidity and performance are used to determine pricing. Indexes differ by commodity type; for example the Chicago Board of trade, the Reuters/Jefferies CRB index, the Goldman Sachs commodity Index, the Dow Jones, the New York Board of trade and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The commodity market index is very diversified and tracks prices of such items as soy gold and hogs, but investors do not need to take possession of these items. Most simply invest to make a profit. There are a number of funds are available to meet your goals, including commodity funds, natural resource funds, funds that hold futures and combination funds which include actual and future holdings. - 23208

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