Investing in Commodities (PDF)

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction:
Commodities and especially investments in commodities are currently enjoying a high degree of attention by institutional investors such as pension funds and portfolio managers but an increasing interest in commodities can also be found at retail investors. Unlike bonds, stocks, mutual and exchange traded funds, commodities are real, tangible products and part of people¿s everyday life. Even though commodities are essential for our survival, recently commodities as an asset class were part of excessive media coverage, investments in that asset class has become interesting for private investors.
In this Bachelor Thesis I give insight into the commodity sector as an investment opportunity especially for private investors in Germany. I will refrain from presenting the historical development of the physical commodity market, but this work shows the facts about the six most important opportunities provided in the financial market to participate in the development in as Jim Rogers describes it, ¿the world¿s best market¿.
Price development of selected commodities in 2009:
The previously mentioned excessive media coverage is the consequence of apparently infinite price increases of the much-noticed commodities gold and crude oil. The spot price for gold for example has reached a new all-time high in November 2009 with over 1100 USD/oz. and a price increase of 50% in 12 months. The spot price for Brent crude oil has approximately doubled in the same period of time from around 38 USD/bbl. at the end of December 2008 to 78 USD/bbl. in November 2009. Therewith the spot price for one barrel of Brent crude oil has only reached 50% of its peak price on 7th of June 2008. Back then crude oil cost 145.16 USD/bbl. Such performances and prospects for further price increases arouse interest in the mass market and move commodity investments into the focus of all kind of investors. Indeed investment in the asset class commodities has always been profitable for investors as they have usually achieved a higher rate of return in the past as well as in the year 2009 compared to benchmark-investments like the German index of leading shares, DAX (see Table A: Spot prices for Gold & Crude Oil vs. Benchmark (DAX) from Nov. 2008 - Nov. 2009). At the same time commodity investments have been underrepresented in most portfolios of private investors.
What happened before 2009?
Before the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, the increasing demand [...]