Commodities

DBC thoughtfully addresses the two thorniest problems in commodities: weighting and roll costs. The most market-like approach, production weighting, allocates heavily to consumables like oil at the expense of storables like gold. DBC threads the needle by capping energy’s economic dominance at 60%, yet allowing for a diversified portfolio. DBC aims to turn short-term contracts into a long-term investment carefully, by picking the cheapest of the tenors available for each of its contracts. This mitigates roll costs, but in cases where DBC selects long-term contracts, it can sacrifice responsiveness to short-term price movements. Expect a K-1 at tax time.