Exchange Traded Funds
In recent years, there is one type of fund that has hit the commodities market creating a major impact. This comes in the form of exchange traded funds. United States markets alone hold more than $10 billion in assets, as of 2009. The investor has many choices when it comes to using these funds. They use them to purchase exposure to individual commodity sectors, gold, oil, broad-based commodity futures indexes, and silver. What makes these funds so popular is the fact that they are very easy to purchase. They are purchased as an exchange-traded fund as an investor would purchase any other security. Exchange traded funds are considered very affordable because there is no commission charge for purchase and they cost approximately 75% less than a commodity mutual fund.

Exchange-Traded Funds Linked to Individual Commodities Futures
Futures are very popular with investors, which can be considered the home of commodities-linked exchange trade funds. The way this works is that this type of fund will buy futures with leverage, but they will only offer a small part of the cost of the contract. Then the remaining balance will go to treasuries, who will in turn generate income from the interest that is accumulated. When an investor begins to inquire about the return he or she will get on their investment, the answer can be increasingly complicated. This is because it is based on many different contingencies that begin with roll yield, collateral interest income, and ends with any changes in spot price.

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