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Breaking Down the Bloomberg Commodity Index

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StockCharts carries several commodity symbols from Bloomberg that chartists can use to track individual commodities and commodity groups. These can be found by searching the symbol catalog for "Bloomberg and index" (without quotation marks). The image below shows a sampling of these symbols. 

The list starts with the Bloomberg Commodity Index, which consists of six commodity groups and twenty-one different commodities. This is the Bloomberg equivalent of the CRB Index ($CRB). Before looking at the components, note that symbols ending with "TR" represent a "total return index", which is one that reinvests all proceeds and distributions. The performance difference, however, is usually negligible and chartists can simply use the normal index for their analysis. 

The Bloomberg Commodity Index ($BCOM) can be divided into six subgroups (subindex). These include:

The Performance SharpChart below shows a three month Performance SharpChart with all six subindexes and the Bloomberg Commodity Index. Notice that energy (green) is the top performer and industrial metals (purple) is second. Softs and precious metals are the weakest. Of note, livestock (yellow line) is making a move as its performance line is poised to cross over into positive territory. 

Arthur Hill
About the author: , CMT, is a Senior Technical Analyst at StockCharts.com. He has written articles for numerous financial publications including Barrons and Stocks & Commodities magazine. Focusing predominantly on US equities and ETFs, his systematic approach of identifying trend, finding signals within the trend, and setting key price levels has made him an esteemed technician. In addition to his CMT designation, Arthur holds an MBA from the Cass Business School at City University in London. Learn More
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