First, what is a commodity?
Bulk commodities refer to homogeneous and tradable commodities that are widely used as industrial basic raw materials and can only be traded on legal commodity exchanges. Commodities can be roughly divided into three categories: energy commodities, metal commodities and agricultural products:
1, energy and chemical products: crude oil, fuel oil, unleaded gasoline, propane, natural rubber, etc.
2. Metal products: gold, silver, copper, aluminum, lead, zinc, nickel, palladium and platinum;
Agriculture (by-products): corn, soybean, wheat, rice, oats, barley, rye, pork breast, pigs, live cattle, calves, soybean powder, soybean oil, cocoa, coffee, cotton, wool, sugar, orange juice, rapeseed oil, eggs, etc.
Second, there is a lot of family knowledge about commodities.
Investors with some financial knowledge should know that the prices of financial commodities are mostly affected by market and macro factors, and commodities are most affected by macro factors.
influencing factor
The trend of commodity prices is mainly influenced by economic cycle, industry supply and demand and monetary policy. For example, when the macroeconomic fundamentals strengthen, the demand for industrial products such as copper, aluminum, lead and zinc and crude oil will increase, thus benefiting related trading varieties.
For example, during the global financial crisis in 2008, the commodity price index of CRB (Reuters Commodity Research Bureau) fell by 24%; By 2009 and 20 10, the index had risen by 36% and 23% respectively as global authorities began to stimulate the economy and release money. The indiscriminate issuance of global currencies has once again pushed up commodity prices.
For another example, China's supply measurement reform closed many coal mills, reduced production capacity, weakened the supply of coal, steel and non-ferrous metals, and made the relationship between supply and demand of bulk commodities increasingly tense, which once triggered the "coal dance" market of A shares. Of course, in addition to the macro-level economic cycle, there is also the micro-level supply and demand theory, the principle is the same, supply and demand determine the price, so I won't go into details here.
commodity money
In fact, commodities are closely related to foreign exchange, which is used by a country to import commodities. Over time, some major commodity producing and exporting countries have formed the so-called commodity currency based on their own advantages and characteristics.
Commodity currency is actually a currency supported by physical objects (commodities), that is, the exchange rates of these countries are highly correlated with some commodities, such as Canadian dollar-crude oil, Australian dollar-minerals, South African rand-gold and so on. For example, South Africa is an important gold exporter, and the South African rand has long been consistent with the international gold trend.
How to invest in commodities
Commodities are somewhat different from other investment products, and the trading volume, demand and supply of commodities are generally relatively large. Therefore, the futures and spot markets of commodities are authoritative prices formed on the premise that both the supply and demand sides of commodities participate in transactions extensively and compete fully on a large scale.
In addition, bulk commodities are also standardized commodities, and their corresponding futures contracts stipulate the quality standards of delivery commodities in advance. For example, the contract of 1 hand fuel 1804 corresponds to 50 tons of fuel. Because commodities are mostly upstream industrial products, the futures and spot prices of their supply and demand will directly affect the whole economic system, so commodity investment is trusted by many individuals or institutional investors.
There are three main opportunities to participate in commodity investment:
1, commodity fund
The funds we often see in the market, such as gold ETF, XX crude oil, XX commodities, XX commodity ETF connection, and commodity QDII, are all funds that invest in the commodity market. Attention! These pits of precious metal wealth management must not be touched! The metal T+D products of Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange mentioned in "Gold", as well as the bulk commodity wealth management products of banks.
This commodity ETF (transactional open index fund) invests in physical objects and futures contracts through fund companies. The advantage of commodity ETF is that it can make investors not directly participate in commodity market transactions, facilitate purchase and redemption, have good liquidity and lower risk than commodity futures, which is very suitable for the investment needs of ordinary people.
2, the goods in stock
Spot goods mainly refer to enterprises selling and purchasing products through electronic trading platforms, completing electronic purchase and sale contracts, collecting payment for goods, and finally realizing effective delivery of goods.
The characteristics of spot commodity trading: two-way trading, hedging mechanism, ups and downs can make money, and leverage mechanism can also be used to make small bets and amplify capital transactions.
3. Commodity futures
Commodity futures are standardized contracts based on specific commodities such as cotton, soybeans and oil. A standardized agreement for buyers and sellers to buy and sell a certain number of physical goods at an agreed price (such as 3,000 yuan/metric ton) on an agreed date in the future (such as 1 year contract, that is, March 20 19).
The rise and fall of commodity futures prices is essentially a game. In the commodity futures market, institutional investors usually play different roles, such as hedgers, arbitrageurs and speculators. After China restricted stock index futures trading, many hedge funds turned to commodity futures.
Ordinary investors can invest as long as they open an account in a futures company. However, it should be noted that there are only three legal futures exchanges in China at present: Shanghai Futures Exchange (mainly dealing in copper, gold, aluminum, zinc, natural rubber, fuel, etc.). ); Dalian Commodity Futures Exchange (mainly deals in soybeans, soybean oil, soybean meal, corn, palm oil, polyethylene, etc. ); Zhengzhou Commodity Futures Exchange (mainly engaged in strong wheat, hard wheat, cotton, sugar, PTA, rapeseed oil, etc. ).
So some so-called other exchanges, external markets, etc. , still need more than one mind. Moreover, futures investment is essentially aimed at obtaining spreads and is a leveraged speculative business. If the market fluctuates violently, it may cause great losses.