Topic: Investors show appetite for oil and gold
“There’s been a tremendous interest in commodities exposure over the last couple of years, with commodities prices going up and with investors trying to find new and less correlated asset classes for their portfolios,” says Loren Fox, co-leader of the ETF practice at Strategic Insight.
The ETC structure was developed in Europe to provide investors with access to single commodities, which is not possible under the Ucits III regulations that govern most European ETFs. Most ETCs use futures to gain exposure but some gold and precious metals funds hold the physical commodity.
They track broad commodities indices as well as single commodities and are structured as debt rather than packaged as funds. Like ETFs, though, they are traded and settled on regulated exchanges.
Full story from the FT: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/81a3b422-4e08 … ck_check=1