Commodities - the industry casanova?

After a decade of table-topping performance commodity funds are becoming more popular than ever in the current volatile markets. But is the bubble due to burst or will the love last?

Investors have fallen for the commodity story hook, line and bushel, pumping millions into conventional funds, ETFs and structured products. Sharp increases in commodity prices, and underlying equities in some cases, prove it was a good call, although consumers smarting at energy and food inflation may disagree. In dollar terms, commodities were the best performing asset class over the last decade, topping annual performance five times, beating real estate into second place and US equities to a distant third. According to ETF Securities, commodity annualised dollar returns were 10.9%, a h...