Louise Yamada, a very well respected technical analyst was recently on CNBC discussing the case for a, “death cross,” in the commodity sector. While I agree with the general assessment that commodity prices as a whole could soften over the next six months, I take issue with the market instrument she chose to illustrate her point, the CCI as well as the general uselessness of this instrument as an investment vehicle. Therefore, we’ll briefly examine why we agree with the softness of the commodity markets and what I believe will follow shortly thereafter as well as a useful tool for individuals looking for commodity market exposure.
The CCI is the Continuous Commodity Index. This index originated in 1957 as the CRB Index as named by the Commodity Research Bureau. It’s been revised and updated many times over the years to generally represent an equal weighting of 17 different commodity futures contract and is continuously rebalanced to maintain an equal 5.88% weighting per market. This really was the pioneering commodity index contract and was traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange actively until the early 19990’s. The proliferation of commodity funds and niche indexes since then has rendered the CCI useless and untradeable. In fact, the Intercontinental Exchange that held the licensing for this product delisted it this past April.
Louise Yamada’s point that the commodity markets may be softening is worth noting. She attacked it from a purely technical standpoint. She used the bearish chart pattern that was setting up on her hypothetical contract to illustrate the waning nature of the commodity markets’ failed rally attempts over the last year to suggest that there is more sell side pressure on the rallies than there is a willingness to buy on the declines. She further illustrated her point using the “death cross” of declining moving averages to suggest further bearishness was in store for the commodity markets cleverly noting the frown pattern made by the highs over the last two years.
I’m a big proponent of technical analysis as well as chart pattern recognition (Our Research) however, my reasons for generally bearish commodity behavior over the coming months has far more to do with the sluggish nature of the global economies. China is still the primary source of global economic expansion. Their economy is both large enough and strong enough to buy the world time to work through the overexpansion and corresponding crash of the housing/economic bubble that hasn’t been completely digested, yet. Furthermore, the unabated quantitative easing has lost its ability to boost the economy as a whole and is simply fueling an equity market bubble as the world’s largest players seek parking spaces for the ultra-cheap money that only they have access to. Therefore, until Europe turns the corner and we begin to reconcile the difference between the doldrums of our economy and the exuberance of our stock market, the end line demand for commodities will remain soft.
The flip side to the waning demand story is that once the tide turns, all of the liquidity that’s been pumped into the global economic system will finally trigger the next massive commodity rally. The first leg was fueled the Federal Reserve and Mother Nature. Massive quantitative easing in the wake of the housing collapse fueled massive speculation in gold, silver and crude oil markets. This was followed by one of the worst droughts in U.S. history sent the grain markets to all time highs. Clearly, we’ve gotten a taste of what happens in the commodity markets when there’s a rally to be had. Money attracts money and that’s why we saw the evolution of the Continuous Commodity Index from a single to contract to every conceivable niche market in futures, ETF’s and index funds.
Some of these niche markets have developed a strong enough following to make them tradable. The most liquid commodity futures index contract is the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index Excess Return contract. This is based on the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) affectionately termed the, “Girl Scout Cookie Index” by floor traders when it came on the scene in the mid 1990’s.
This market currently has an open interest of more than 25,000 contracts. The bid/ask is relatively wide at approximately $100 per contract difference but the liquidity is solid with a total of more than 100 bids and offers showing on the quote board. This index, like the old CCI is still heavily weighted in the energy sector with Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate crude accounting for nearly half of the weighted index. The bright side is that this index only has a margin requirement of $2,200. Ironically, a half size mini crude contract requires $2,255 in margin. You can find all futures market hours and point values here. The balance of the index is weighted 15% towards growing commodities like wheat, corn, coffee and sugar. Livestock comprises another 4.5% and metals makes up about 10.5%.
This fall and winter should provide time for the markets to finish digesting some of the previous boom cycle’s excesses. We’ll also have lots of global data coming from Japan, China, India and Germany as well as a new Federal Reserve Board Chairperson of our own. The trillions of Dollars that have been poured into the economy will eventually end up chasing returns. That will be the point when inflation begins to creep in. Weaning the economy off the monthly doses of funding is becoming harder and harder with each dose administered and the major players won’t be happy about it. Therefore, it’s sure to continue for too long and will only be reigned in once it’s too late.
