Hey... I was wondering if anyone knew how an average investor can invest in such commodities as corn, soy bean, pomergrante, etc. I know that I can indirectly through companies that deal with these products but I was hoping that there was a more direct way. Thanks!

I think the best way an "average" investor can invest directly into your aforementioned commodities is via futures. I presume the ETF market will bring corresponding products to market at some point down the line. But for now...

Here are some ETFs:

PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC)
iShares SP GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust (GSG)

And some ETNS:

iPath Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index Total Return ETN (DJP)
iPath GSCI Total Return Index ETN (GSP).
ELEMENTS Rogers International Commodity Total Return Index ETN (RJI)

Source: http://www.altruistfa.com/

You can also search for ZeccoShare users who hold these ETFs and ETNs here:

http://www.zecco.com/

I believe ETFs that invest in the scarcity of water might be a good option. It's very speculative because the growth rate depends on a decrease in supply and balance sheets aren't that strong. They're pretty weak as it is a receivables based industry.

PHO
PIO
CGW

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Aqua

How topical, Aqua!

Here's a great blog entry titled, "Which of the 6 Agriculture ETF's is the Best?" ...  (Yes I know it's a blog, but all he does is state facts.)

http://seekingalpha.com/">http://seekingalpha.com/

Buy agriculture people...and before you buy an agro ETF, look at the what is being allocated where...For instance, do you want just corn, soy, and wheat? Or do you want exposure to cotton, sugar, and coffee? If the latter, go with RJA.

Questions like this can be easily answered by running screens on morningstar.com.

I believe the correct link is: http://screen.morningstar.com/ETFScreener/Selector.html.  There are also good screens at other sites like smartmoney.com and Forbes.com.

Good luck with all that.  I recently took a small position in comodities.  You just cant ever know if its too late to jump in on these rallies...

If the dollar continues to fall and oil to rise then commodities should do fine. 

I prefer the ETN "JJA". It's tracking most of the agricultural commodity future contracts such as wheat, soybean, soybean ol, sugar, corn, coffee,and cotton. And the ETN "DJP" is also great to me. There are 19 kinds of commodity future contract in its portfolio including with 33% energy, 33% agriculture, 24% basic and precious metal, and 10% livestock.

I think I'm going to with RJA too, love it's pie chart (broad exposure with a good chunk of cotton.) Hope today was a blip on the general commodity upswing.

I think investors are switching from commodities to stocks


Good Luck,
Scott
S&P 500 Trend

Yeah, you may be right. I still like it a lot, but might wait for it to get a little closer to $10.

I bought DBC a few months ago and enjoyed a 35% increase.  The bottom might be falling out of commodities now, but maybe in a few months if things come down you'll get a long-term buying opportunity.

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Adam Heim
Portfolio Analyst
B.W. Investment Club
Class of 2008