Commodities · Commodity specialist topics · lesson 8 of 9 · 7 min read · David Alexander
The rolling-product problem
rolling product
A fund or note that offers commodity exposure by holding futures and rolling them forward as they expire. Its return is the futures return - price change plus or minus roll yield - not the spot price change its name suggests. This is a description of mechanism, not a rating of products: the same structure that bleeds in contango collects in backwardation, and what it does at any moment is set by the curve, not the product.
This lesson is part of the advanced modules.
Modules 6 to 8 are included with a paid account. The definitional summary above is the whole of this page until then.