Blankfein graduated with a Harvard law degree in 1978, spent three years at a big law firm and applied for a job at Goldman Sachs--and was summarily rejected. (He also got turned down by the former Dean Witter and by Morgan Stanley.) So in 1981 he joined a small commodities-trading outfit, J.

FORBES: On The Cover/Top Stories

Most legitimate commodities traders work for big institutions and banks and provide their services to ultra-diversified portfolios that only have a small portion in commodities.

FORBES: How Safe are Your Savings? Commodity Pools Can Be Toxic Waters

Ratings agencies and their banker clients do not bother with small companies, commodities, smaller funds and other securities that have little potential to make them large amounts of money.

FORBES: AAA Ratings Are A Grim Fairy Tale

The market, relatively small compared with other commodities, is prone to big swings.

WSJ: A Wager on Metal's Silver Lining

Investors still make up only a small part of the commodities market.

ECONOMIST: The charge-sheet against commodity speculators is flimsy

The first piece was Sempra Commodities, a small energy trading operation launched at Drexel Burnham Lambert, then acquired by AIG.

FORBES: Gas Guzzler

We talked about Apple (AAPL), small caps, oils, commodities, industrials and tech.

FORBES: Has the Market Finally Reached the Peak?

Americans aren't feeling higher prices in the form of inflation yet (raw commodities are a small proportion of final food and product costs), but shipping methods are changing.

FORBES: A Bubble in Bulk

Semple says small cap fund is betting on reforms going forward, and when that happens, smaller companies that are not tuned into the global commodities trade, will outperform as small caps tend to do.

FORBES: Van Eck Global Makes Case for Russia Small Cap

In particular, for some commodities (including coffee) certification is available only to co-operatives of small producers, who are deemed to be most likely to give workers a fair deal when deciding how to spend the Fairtrade premium.

ECONOMIST: Food politics