Commodity Essay

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What Is a Commodity? Kw: commodity Meta: You can buy and trade commodities, but you need to learn more about them first. Find out the answer to, “What is a commodity?” A commodity is technically any type of basic good that is interchangeable for another commodity of the same type. For example, a barrel of oil by one producer is essentially the same as a barrel of oil from someone else. These commodities may be slightly different in quality or type, but they are more or less the same across all of the producers. To be traded on an exchange, these commodities must meet a basis grade or minimum standard. What Is a Commodity? The entire idea behind commodities is that one commodity is essentially the same from one producer to the next. …show more content…

A hard commodity is typically made from some type of natural resource that is extracted or mined. Common examples of a hard commodity include rubber, gold and oil. A soft commodity is generally a kind of livestock or agricultural product. Soft commodities include examples like coffee, beef, soybeans, corn, sugar, wheat and pork. Investors can invest in commodities by purchasing stock in a corporation that relies on commodity prices or through a mutual fund that focuses on commodities. Exchange-traded funds and index funds can also specialize in commodities-related companies. One of the most common ways to directly invest in commodities is through a futures contract. In the United States, the major exchanges for commodities are in New York an Chicago. The New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) includes commodities like orange juice, ethanol, cocoa, coffee and sugar. Meanwhile, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) focuses on wheat, ethanol, gold, silver, rice, oats, soybeans and corn. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), traders will find commodities like pork bellies, feeder cattle, lean hogs, milk, lumber, cattle and butter. The New York Mercantile Exchange trades in commodities like aluminum, platinum, propane, silver, copper, palladium, heating oil, electricity, oil and

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