Back to Journal

2014 Commodities in Review

N
Written by
NIBA
Published
Reading time
1 min
2014 had its share of commodity headlines. With the year now completed, this is a good opportunity to review the previous year of the commodity markets. There was something for everyone as some commodity markets rallied, but many commodity markets declined in 2014. Several of the markets experienced price lows not seen in several years.

The last several months of 2014 will definitely be known for falling oil prices as the topic found itself constantly in the headlines and in the conversation of the business, economic and political news. Besides energy, the metals and grain sectors made significant lows.  One of the largest commodity moves in 2014 occurred in the rally of the coffee market. The meats sector made new highs last year.

To see full article click here

Mark Shore

Shore Capital Management LLC

Stay Informed

Subscribe to the NIBA Journal for the latest insights and industry updates

Related Articles

View All
Managed Futures

CTA Connection Sponsored Content: Working with the IASG Database

While industry veterans in the futures space understand the value of CTAs in a portfolio, hedge fund assets under management dwarf those AUM totals by over thirteen times. To explain it like one of my traders, “There is a multi-trillion-dollar industry pushing stocks no matter how they perform.” We do not have that luxury as investors come to us looking to steady their portfolio and ultimately hold us to a more demanding standard. After all, the marketing machine is owned by our competition. This puts the value of reaching potential prospects at a higher premium. Each conversation is one more that we can position to help someone now or down the road. So where does one look for these investors?...

Managed Futures

Advantages of a traditional portfolio allocating to a volatility index

For decades, investors frequently perceived a traditional portfolio allocation in the range of 60 percent equities and 40 percent bonds for proper diversification. Since 2000 investors, both large and small, have experienced several moments of negative returns to their portfolios. This experience has enlightened many investors to seek wider portfolio diversification in attempts to reduce their correlation risk, tail risk and negative volatility. As investors search for greater diversification, it begs the question, is there an added value to allocate some portion of a traditional portfolio to a volatility index, such as VSTOXX® Futures? Investors often view each component of their portfolio as a standalone investment. Ultimately asset allocation is about how each portfolio component compliments the entire portfolio. Asset...

Managed Futures

Why you should get involved in managed futures

Happy New Year everyone! With the holidays behind us, I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at new business opportunities for the upcoming year. I work almost exclusively in the managed futures space. In speaking with brokers, I have found that they tend to be segregated into those who work primarily in transactional business, retail brokerage and hedging, and those who focus on managed futures accounts. Many transactional brokers know that commodity trading advisors (CTA’s) are out there, but they don’t know how they can become involved in that side of the business. The first question one should ask is, “why should I get involved with managed futures?” The biggest objection I run into when talking with...