1. Identify the 4 Main Commodity Categories
Commodities are generally split into “hard” (mined or extracted) and “soft” (grown or livestock) categories: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- Energy: Crude oil (Brent, WTI), natural gas, heating oil, and gasoline.
- Metals: Precious metals (gold, silver, platinum) and industrial metals (copper, aluminum, iron ore).
- Agriculture: Food crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, coffee, sugar, cocoa).
- Livestock: Live cattle, feeder cattle
