With precious metals you can just buy the bullion from bullion
dealers, although you'll pay the larger spread, which is what
I've been doing.
Unfortunately, with other commodities you can't do that. So,
the ETFs, no matter how flawed they are, offer investors
tracking of the commodity price. USO tracked WTIC
very well this Spring, but not so well when it crashed -
perhaps, due to large contango that developed. The
only other way is to buy futures yourself.
I agree, these funds offer some real money pile to the Market
Makers, who front run the contract rollover, which is probably
why they started them to begin with. It's the money pile lost
by the fund.
Perhaps, the managers, who are obviously not interested in
paying the dues to the Market Makers, can somehow optimize
the rollover process.
Note that last year was very, very unusual. Perhaps, during
more normal times these funds should track things better. |
