Understanding Commodity Exchange Traded Products

Transcription

1 Understanding Commodity Exchange Traded Products Lisa Dallmer Executive Vice President Global Index Services and Exchange Traded Products NYSE Euronext NYSE Euronext. All Rights Reserved.

2 Why Companies in the Commodity business do not perfectly track Commodity prices While being partially driven by the underlying commodities, such companies are in fact operating companies and not purely commodity-based companies. As a result, they are exposed to a number of different additional risks that potential investors should be aware of when determining their investment allocations: - Operating risks: The index holdings are entities that operate in the commodity business, rather than just own the commodity itself. This results in exposure to operations such as exploration, extraction, shipping and storage. - Foreign Exchange risks: Businesses operating and extracting commodities in foreign locations are exposed to the currency risks associated with the respective regions. - Management risks: There is also exposure to risks associated with the management of the company. For example, spot oil does not have a board of directors, but ExxonMobil does. - Nationalization Risk: Many companies in the commodity business must manage JVs with mineral rich governments. Nationalization risk is real and prevalent in many countries. 2

3 Historical Analysis*: Commodity Spot ETPs and Underlying Spot Data analyzed during January to September 2009 Relationship of Spot Gold to SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and ishares COMEX Gold Trust (IAU): GLD IAU Beta (against Spot GOLD) R squared (against Spot GOLD) Source: Bloomberg Relationship of Spot Silver to ishares Silver Trust (SLV): SLV Beta (against Spot Silver) R squared (against Spot Silver) Source: Bloomberg The Redemption & Creation Process ensures that Spot ETPs track the return of the underlying spot. * Based on Trading price R squared: R-Squared is a statistical measure of how well a regression line approximates real data points. R-Squared is a descriptive measure between zero and one, an indication of how well the independent variable is predicting the dependent variable. An R-Squared of zero is low and an R2 of one is high. 3

4 ETPs and Futures are Different Feature ETP Futures Roll Manager Individual bears roll cost Management fee Yes No Margin Marginable, but not required Required Spread/ Tick Value $0.01 $10 Tax treatment** Commodities holding physical commodity: collectible (28% tax rate) Commodities holding futures: gains and losses are treated as 60% long-term (15% tax rate) and 40% short-term United States Commodity Funds: pay taxes as limited partnerships Marked-to-market Gains and losses treated as 60% long-term (15% tax rate) and 40% short-term Bankruptcy/ Counterparty risk Issuer and/or trust entity Futures Clearing Corporation Source: Bloomberg (for Spread/Tick Value) ** Refer to end of slides 4

5 Market Quality of ETPs against Futures Sample Spreads and Depth Consolidated NYSE Arca Top of Book ETP Futures* Cash Security (Symbol) Depth spreads Future (Exchange) spreads SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) $321, % Gold (CMX) 0.01% United States Oil Fund (USO) $363, % Crude Oil (NYM) 0.01% United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) $565, % Natural Gas (NYM) 0.02% Powershares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) $173, % Wheat (CBT), Corn (CBT), Aluminum (LME), Gold (CMX), Heating Oil (NYM), Crude Oil (NYM) 0.03% Source: NYSE Arcavision and Bloomberg, January 2009 September 2009 There is a minimal cost of quoting, resulting in spreads being marginally wider than the underlying futures * Based on minimum tick sizes 5

6 ** NYSE Euronext and its affiliates do not provide tax advice. Accordingly, any discussion of U.S. tax matters contained herein (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, in connection with the promotion, marketing or recommendation by anyone unaffiliated with NYSE Euronext of any of the matters addressed herein or for the purpose of avoiding U.S. tax related penalties 6

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