For those who insist on computer-assisted exposure, he recommends Rydex's Managed Futures Fund.
Judging by the price of Fed fund futures, investors expect the federal funds rate to be as low as 2.25% by the end of the year.
To satisfy demand, asset managers have been busy rolling out new alternative products specifically designed for non-accredited investors hedge funds and managed futures inside mutual fund wrappers, for instance.
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The fund invests in futures contracts associated with U.S. dollars, euros, Japanese yen, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, British pounds, Australian dollars, New Zealand dollars, Norwegian kroner and Swedish kronor.
Investor cans bypass both company risk and commodities futures trading costs by purchasing U.S. Oil, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of oil futures.
How about having a professional fund manager trade currency futures for you?
Speculators might purchase corn futures, or the Teucrium Corn Fund (CORN), during a dry season expecting prices to rise on a thin harvest.
For an index to be a success, it has to be widely accepted and liquid, so that fund managers can trade futures and options on it.
Oil prices were sustained by quantitative easing, but that ran out June 30 so liquidity slowed as a result, including speculative hedge fund flow into oil futures.
On April 17th the organisation sued the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over its mutual-fund rules.
As well, traders speculate that Credit Suisse was pushing up against firm-wide limits for futures positions or derivatives related to the fund.
While DBA is a fine fund, the use of futures contracts runs up expenses and the expense ratio here is 0.85%, a tad high.
Market participants include bullion dealers, fund managers, investment banks, futures traders and technical-chart analysts.
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Since it is not practical to have a physically-backed crude oil fund, existing products rely on futures contracts to implement their strategies.
The hedge fund made significant bets on natural gas futures.
This an equity ETF, not some futures mess like the U.S. Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG).
Institutions can do that easily enough in the futures market, but individuals are better off seeking a fund as the vehicle.
One way to partially combat this effect, and still use futures is to do what the United States 12 Month Oil Fund ( USL) has done.
Dean Curnutt at Macro Risk Advisors figures that in early March the Credit Suisse fund had to trade the equivalent of 3, 300 VIX futures contracts daily, or about 4% of the entire day's volume.
Brian Hunter, the gas trader, tried to raise money for another commodity fund, Solengo Capital, until he was sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and named in an administrative action by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
If that large fund trader was the one that purchased the put options on gold futures the day before, or was involved with the firm that did, then it lends credibility to those market watchers who reckon gold can be and has been manipulated.
He reckons that the fund held about 10% of the global market in natural-gas futures.
Ken Morrison, editor of the online newsletter, Morrison on the Markets, pointed out that the rally has come with a steady level of open interest in futures and no change in the net ownership of the SPDR Gold exchange-traded fund (GLD) since Dec. 22.
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The fund could invest in everything: municipal bonds, equities, preferred stocks, futures, options and options on futures.
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Meanwhile, fund net length rose slightly for all of the other metals traded on New York futures markets.
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Earlier in the year, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) repealed a key exemption from registration that a majority of hedge fund advisers had relied on.
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Many investors choose to trade crude oil views via ETFs, such as the United States Oil Fund (USO) or iPath Crude Oil ETF (OIL), but the futures chart offers a baseline for recent market action.
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