The Dow Jones Commodity Index, for instance, was down almost 10% through the end of November.
Oil has underperformed the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index all year, down by more than 10 percent.
Commodities, based on the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index, spiked 6.8% in the second quarter.
Its benchmark is the Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index and it does not invest directly in commodity futures.
The raw materials commodity index is unchanged year-over-year, with choppy charts in copper, aluminum and depressed precious metal quots.
The CRB, a broad commodity index, crashed 58% between July and March 2009.
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Also see Morningstar Long Only Global Commodity Index, up nearly 6% year-to-date, and more than 6% over the last 13 weeks.
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The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index has seesawed since it plunged from its June 2008 peak, and is trending downward at the moment.
John Murphy, chief technical analyst at Stockcharts.com, produced a chart showing the technical erosion of the popular commodity index since early May.
At current levels the commodity index remains at barely half the peak levels seen in 2007, and it has advanced little since late 2003.
Goldman, then, began trading in commodities, set up a fund and an index (Goldman Sachs Commodity Index) consisting of cattle, coffee, corn, wheat, cocoa, etc.
He recommends that long-term investors who want to own commodities buy an index like the iShare GSG Commodity Index , which includes holdings in metals, agriculture and energy.
The effect that speculation had on oil prices over this period coincides closely with the dramatic rise in commodity index trading resulting in concerns voiced by policymakers.
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Energy down 9% with the overall CRB commodity index losing almost 5% is at the very least the temporary bursting of a bubble.
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Commodity index trading, which allows investment firms to bet on many commodities at once, fosters higher prices on everything that can be speculated upon in package deals.
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The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index is down 2.62% for the first half of the year, said John Prestbo, editor and executive director of the Dow Jones Indexes.
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But is the recent gyration in oil prices a function of supply and demand or is it a sudden rush in or out of commodity index funds?
The Powershares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund ( DBC) is a widely followed and liquid ETF that tracks the changes in the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index.
These two scenarios can create an environment where performance expectations of investors may not be met due to the tracking error versus the underlying commodity index that is created.
The yellow metal had been trading in tandem with the broader commodity complex this year, as a comparison between the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) and the PowerShares DB Commodity Index shows.
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If you follow the raw commodity markets, including precious metals, or monitor the raw commodity sector in general, then an examination of the weekly chart for the Continuous Commodity Index (CCI) is in order.
Chart Analysis : The breakout in the Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index has initial targets at 165 with important resistance in the 170 area, which is the major 50% retracement resistance from the 2008 highs at 238.
The Morgan Stanley Commodity Related Index (CRX) is an equal-dollar weighted index of 20 stocks involved in commodity related industries such as energy, non-ferrous metals, agriculture, and forest products.
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In 2012, the Morgan Stanley Commodity Related Index only increased 1.4 percent.
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The Economist's commodity price index is broadly unchanged from a year ago.
The Economist all-items commodity price index has risen by 21% in dollar terms since January 2002, its fastest rate of growth since 1994.
ECONOMIST: The prices of most raw materials have been surging
Market technician Arthur Hill on Stockcharts.com notes some exceptionally rare oversold readings on the SPY chart on an indicator called the commodity channel index (CCI).
The Economist's commodity price index is up by 5% from its low on October 23rd, almost back to where it was before the terrorist attacks.
Whereas big swings in oil prices usually reflect supply shocks, and precious metals are often seen as a safe haven in times of crisis, The Economist's commodity price index (which excludes oil and precious metals) has traditionally been a fairly good leading indicator of turning-points in global industrial output.
ECONOMIST: The prices of most raw materials have been surging
It helps that commodity prices, as recorded by the Reuters-Commodity Research Bureau index, are up 30% in the last two years.
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