Editing Commodity market (section)

== Traded commodity classes ==
{{Main|List of traded commodities}}

{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-  style="background:#ececec; vertical-align:top;"
|+ Top traded commodities
! Rank !! Commodity !! Value in US$ ('000)!! Date of <br/> information
|-
| align=center|  1 || Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products, etc. || align=right| $2,183,079,941|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  2 || Electrical, electronic equipment || align=right| $1,833,534,414|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  3 || Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, etc. || align=right| $1,763,371,813|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  4 || Vehicles other than railway, tramway || align=right| $1,076,830,856|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  5 || Plastics and articles thereof || align=right| $470,226,676|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  6 || Optical, photo, technical, medical, etc. apparatus || align=right| $465,101,524|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  7 || Pharmaceutical products || align=right| $443,596,577|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  8 || Iron and steel || align=right| $379,113,147|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center|  9 || Organic chemicals || align=right| $377,462,088|| align=center| 2012
|-
| align=center| 10 || Pearls, precious stones, metals, coins, etc. || align=right| $348,155,369|| align=center| 2012
|}
Source: [[International Trade Centre]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trademap.org/open_access/Index.aspx?proceed=true&&tradetype=E&outputoption=byproduct&productclusterlevel=HS2 |title=Trade statistics for international business development |publisher=Trade Map |date=20 September 2013 |access-date=26 September 2013}}</ref>

===Energy===
Energy commodities include [[crude oil]] particularly [[West Texas Intermediate]] (WTI) crude oil and [[Brent Crude|Brent crude oil]], [[natural gas]], [[heating oil]], [[ethanol]] and [[purified terephthalic acid]]. [[fuel hedging|Hedging]] is a common practice for these commodities.

====Crude oil and natural gas====
{{See also|Chronology of world oil market events}}

For many years, [[West Texas Intermediate]] (WTI) crude oil, a [[Light crude oil|light, sweet crude oil]], was the world's most-traded commodity. WTI is a grade used as a [[benchmark (crude oil)|benchmark in oil pricing]]. It is the [[underlying]] [[commodity]] of Chicago Mercantile Exchange's oil futures contracts. WTI is often referenced in news reports on oil prices, alongside [[Brent Crude]]. WTI is lighter and sweeter than Brent and considerably lighter and sweeter than Dubai or Oman.<ref>[[Marius Vassiliou]] (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Petroleum Industry. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. {{ISBN|0-8108-5993-9}}.</ref>

From April through October 2012, Brent futures contracts exceeded those for WTI, the longest streak since at least 1995.<ref name=BrentWTI2012>
{{cite news
|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-26/brent-poised-to-oust-wti-as-most-traded-oil-futures.html
|publisher=Bloomberg
|title=Brent Poised to Depose WTI as Most-Traded Oil Futures
|first=Grant
|last=Smith
|date=26 November 2012
}}</ref>

Crude oil can be light or [[Heavy crude oil|heavy]]. Oil was the first form of energy to be widely traded. Some commodity market speculation is directly related to the stability of certain states, e.g., [[Iraq]], [[Bahrain]], [[Iran]], [[Venezuela]] and many others. Most commodities markets are not so tied to the politics of volatile regions.

Oil and gasoline are traded in units of 1,000 barrels (42,000 US gallons). WTI crude oil is traded through [[NYMEX]] under [[Ticker symbol|trading symbol]] CL and through [[Intercontinental Exchange]] (ICE) under trading symbol WBS. Brent crude oil is traded in through Intercontinental Exchange under trading symbol BRN and on the [[Chicago Mercantile Exchange|CME]] under trading symbol BZ. [[Gulf Coast Gasoline]] is traded through NYMEX  with the trading symbol of LR. [[Gasoline]] (reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygen blending or RBOB) is traded through NYMEX via trading symbol RB. [[Propane]] is traded through NYMEX, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange since early 2013, via trading symbol PN.

Natural gas is traded through NYMEX in units of 10,000 million BTU with the trading symbol of NG. [[Heating oil]] is traded through NYMEX under trading symbol HO.

====Others====
[[Purified terephthalic acid]] (PTA) is traded through ZCE in units of 5 tons with the trading symbol of TA. [[Ethanol]] is traded at [[Chicago Board of Trade|CBOT]] in units of 29,000 U.S. gal under trading symbols AC (Open Auction) and ZE (Electronic).

===Metals===
====Precious metals====
[[Precious metal]]s currently traded on the commodity market include [[gold]], [[platinum]], [[palladium]] and [[silver]] which are sold by the [[troy ounce]]. One of the main exchanges for these precious metals is [[New York Mercantile Exchange|COMEX]].

According to the [[World Gold Council]], investments in gold are the primary driver of industry growth. Gold prices are highly volatile, driven by large flows of speculative money.<ref name=NYT13Apr2012>
{{cite news
|first=Nathanial
|last=Popper
|date=13 April 2012
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/business/turning-diamonds-into-a-must-have-commodity.html?pagewanted=all
|title=Diamonds as a Commodity
|work=The New York Times
}}</ref>

====Industrial metals====
Industrial metals are sold by the [[metric ton]] through the [[London Metal Exchange]] and [[New York Mercantile Exchange]]. The London Metal Exchange trades include [[copper]], [[aluminium]], [[lead]], [[tin]], [[aluminium alloy]], [[nickel]], [[cobalt]] and [[molybdenum]]. In 2007, [[steel]] began trading on the London Metal Exchange.

Iron ore has been the latest addition to industrial metal derivatives. Deutsche Bank first began offering iron ore swaps in 2008, other banks quickly followed. Since then the size of the market has more than doubled each year between 2008 and 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.internationalresourcejournal.com/features/january13_features/the_importance_of_iron_ore_derivatives.html|title=The Importance of Iron Ore Derivatives - The International Resource Journal|website=www.internationalresourcejournal.com|access-date=6 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915161411/http://www.internationalresourcejournal.com/features/january13_features/the_importance_of_iron_ore_derivatives.html|archive-date=15 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Agriculture===
{{See also|Hedge (finance)#Agricultural commodity price hedging}}
Agricultural commodities include grains, food and fiber as well as livestock and meat, various regulatory bodies define agricultural products.<ref>''See'' the [[Futures Trading Act of 1921]], Declared unconstitutional in [[Hill v. Wallace]] 259 U.S. 44 (1922), the [[Grain Futures Act]] of 1922 and [[Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen]] 262 US 1 (1923).</ref>

In 1900, corn acreage was double that of wheat in the United States. But from the 1930s through the 1970s soybean acreage surpassed corn. Early in the 1970s grain and soybean prices, which had been relatively stable, "soared to levels that were unimaginable at the time". There were a number of factors affecting prices including the "surge in crude oil prices caused by the Arab Oil Embargo in October 1973 (U.S. inflation reached 11% in 1975)".<ref name=CRB>{{cite web
|title=Encyclopedia of Commodity and Financial Prices: Grains and Oilseeds
|url=http://www.crbtrader.com/pubs/enc/grains.pdf
|publisher=Commodity Research Bureau (CRB)
|pages=172–187
|access-date=25 April 2013
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617101346/http://www.crbtrader.com/pubs/enc/grains.pdf
|archive-date=17 June 2012
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

On 21 July 2010, [[United States Congress]] passed the [[Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act]] with changes to the definition of agricultural commodity. The operational definition used by Dodd-Frank includes "[a]ll other commodities that are, or once were, or are derived from, living organisms, including plant, animal and aquatic life, which are generally fungible, within their respective classes, and are used primarily for human food, shelter, animal feed, or natural fiber". Three other categories were explained and listed.<ref name=DoddFrankdefinition2010>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/acd_factsheet_final.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813042609/http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/acd_factsheet_final.pdf |archive-date=2011-08-13 |url-status=live
|title=Final Rule Regarding the Definition of Agricultural Commodity
|publisher=Commodity Futures Trading Commission Office of Public Affairs
|date=21 July 2010
}}</ref>

In February 2013, [[Cornell Law School]] included lumber, soybeans, oilseeds, livestock (live cattle and hogs), dairy products. Agricultural commodities can include lumber (timber and forests), grains excluding stored grain (wheat, oats, barley, rye, grain sorghum, cotton, flax, forage, tame hay, native grass), vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, sweet corn, dry beans, dry peas, freezing and canning peas), fruit (citrus such as oranges, apples, grapes) corn, tobacco, rice, peanuts, sugar beets, sugar cane, sunflowers, raisins, nursery crops, nuts, soybean complex, aquacultural fish farm species such as finfish, mollusk, crustacean, aquatic invertebrate, amphibian, reptile, or plant life cultivated in aquatic plant farms.<ref name=cornell>
{{cite web
|title=Definition of Agricultural Commodities
|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/7/1518
|series=Law at Cornell
|publisher=[[Cornell University]]
|date=February 2013
}}</ref><ref name=reuters15april2013>
{{cite news
|title=Gold set for worst two-day loss since 1983
|first=Veronica
|last=Brown
|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-markets-commodities-idUSBRE93E0LK20130415?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
|work=Reuters
|date=15 April 2013
}}</ref>

===Diamonds===
As of 2012, diamond was not traded as a commodity. Institutional investors were repelled by campaign against "[[blood diamonds]]", the monopoly structure of the diamond market and the lack of uniform standards for diamond pricing. In 2012 the SEC reviewed a proposal to create the "first diamond-backed exchange-traded fund" that would trade online in units of one-carat diamonds with a storage vault and delivery point in Antwerp, home of the [[World Federation of Diamond Bourses|Antwerp Diamond Bourse]]. The exchange fund was backed by a company based in [[New York City]] called [[IndexIQ]]. IndexIQ had already introduced 14 exchange-traded funds since 2008.<ref name=NYT13Apr2012 /><ref>{{cite web
|date=5 February 2013
|title=IQ Physical Diamond Trust
|url=http://sec.edgar-online.com/iq-physical-diamond-trust/s-1a-securities-registration-statement/2013/02/05/section25.aspx
|access-date=15 April 2013
|archive-date=25 December 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225124542/http://sec.edgar-online.com/iq-physical-diamond-trust/s-1a-securities-registration-statement/2013/02/05/section25.aspx
|url-status=dead
}}</ref><ref group=notes>IndexIQ registered Adam S. Patti as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and David Fogel as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President in the City of Rye Brook, New York, on 31 January 2013 as representatives of IndexIQ Advisors LLC sponsoring the IQ Physical Diamond Trust.</ref>

According to [[Citigroup]] analysts, the annual production of polished diamonds is about $18 billion. Like gold, diamonds are easily authenticated and durable. Diamond prices have been more stable than the metals, as the global diamond monopoly [[De Beers]] once held almost 90% (by 2013 reduced to 40%) of the new diamond market.<ref name=NYT13Apr2012 />

===Other commodity markets===
Rubber trades on the [[Singapore Commodity Exchange]] in units of 1&nbsp;kg priced in U.S. cents. [[Palm oil]] is traded on the [[Malaysian Ringgit]] (RM), [[Bursa Malaysia]] in units of 1&nbsp;kg priced in U.S. cents. Wool is traded on the [[AUD]] in units of 1&nbsp;kg. Polypropylene and Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LL) did trade on the London Metal Exchange in units of 1,000&nbsp;kg priced in USD but was dropped in 2011.