Introduction 1 Asset Allocation in Commodity Markets 2 Passive
Notes Introduction 1. Based on the data of the Bank of International Settlements (www.bis.org). 1 Asset Allocation in Commodity Markets 1. The term “top-down” denotes a mode of investment decisions in which the portfolio manager makes the choice of instruments, starting with the broadest category (markets, industries) and ending with the most specific one (individual stocks, instruments). 2. Without taking taxes into account, since, when ignoring this assumption, the capital structure matters. 3. Another classification is referred to by Schneeweis, Crowder, and Kazemi (2010, pp. 91–108), who divide the allocation into strategic allocation, tactical alloca- tion, and dynamic allocation. 4. The concepts of active and passive investment strategies in relation to the com- modity markets have been used, for example, in studies by McFall Lamm (2005) and Engelke and Yuen (2008). 2 Passive Investment Strategies in Commodity Markets 1. The basic form of a futures contract is the same as of a forward contract. The difference is that the futures are settled at the end of each day. We can say that a forward contract is like a string of futures contracts. The credit risk of the futures contract is virtually eliminated (but, of course, there is a probabil- ity that the counterpart fails to complete the contract), because the parties to the transaction pay the initial margin (when the account balance falls below a certain agreed minimum, the investor must submit an additional margin; if he does not, his position will be closed before the margin is used). The futures con- tracts are standardized; the underlying assets, the maturity dates of the contracts (four per year), contract volumes; for example, only the price is negotiated, as opposed to the forward contracts, which are all negotiated (definition by http:// pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures, accessed on August 12, 2013).
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