These ETFs help cut your commodity risk

Article Excerpt

Commodities can help diversify portfolios, but are cyclical and come with high levels of price volatility. However, well-diversified ETFs that offer exposure to commodity producers can help investors overcome the problems associated with direct investments in physical commodities or funds that track a single commodity. Below, we look at three ETFs that provide exposure to commodity producers or directly to the commodities themselves. For more information, see the box on the next page as well as the supplement on page 60. SPDR S&P GLOBAL NATURAL RESOURCES ETF $44.40 (New York symbol GNR; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $1.2 billion) tracks the SPDR S&P Global Natural Resources Index; stocks are selected based on their market capitalization. Exposure to each of the three main categories—agriculture, energy and metals, and mining—is capped at 33.3% of the total. The main country allocations are: U.S. (29.6% of assets), U.K. (16.2%), Canada (11.9%), Australia (11.6%), France (4.7%), Finland (3.4%), Brazil (3.3%) and Russia (3.3%). The ETF holds 90 stocks, with the top…