31/08/2015
A 'commodity market' is a market that trades in primary and secondary rather than manufactured products. primary is Soft commodities are agricultural products such as wheat, coffee, cocoa and sugar. secondary is Hard commodities are mined, such as gold, silver and oil. Investors access about 50 major commodity markets worldwide with purely financial transactions increasingly outnumbering physical trades in which goods are delivered. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. A commodity index fund is a fund whose assets are invested in financial instruments based on or linked to a commodity index.
history of commodity
Commodity-based money and commodity markets in a crude early form are believed to have originated in Sumeria between 4500 BC and 4000 BC. where people trade money as well crude in earlies to generate profits.
Beginning in the late 10th century, commodity markets grew as a mechanism for allocating goods, labor, land and capital across Europe.
the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, often cited as the first stock exchange, originated as a market for the exchange of commodities where it contained very sophisticated contracts.
which was created as a commodity exchange in 1530 and rebuilt in 1608,
Through the 19th century "the exchanges became effective spokesmen for, and innovators of, improvements in transportation, warehousing, and financing, which paved the way to expanded interstate and international trade.