Råvaremarkedet er et av de eldste markedene til dags dato, med noen av de tidligste registreringene av råvaretransaksjoner som dateres tilbake til gamle Egypts predynastiske periode og den japanske risbørsen i Dojima. Til tross for sin eldgamle historie og dagens modernisering, er dette markedet likevel et av de mest omsatte markedene i verden. Det inkluderer noen av de mest vitale råvarene i våre daglige liv. Derfor kommer det kanskje ikke som en overraskelse at enkelte tradere og investorer naturlig nok ønsker å få tilgang til dette viktige markedet. En metode for å gjøre dette, er gjennom Plus500s råvare- CFD-er. Dette må du vite om råvare-markedet, noen eksempler på råvarer og hvordan handle dem gjennom Plus500s tradingplattform.
Commodity Trading: What Is a Commodity?
Commodities can be defined as basic goods or raw materials that are usually used to create a certain end product. Additionally, commodities can also be commercially exchanged for other goods of the same type and are often used in the creation of other products. To learn more, check out our article on what commodities are.
Types of Commodities
Essentially, commodities can be segmented into two categories; hard commodities and soft commodities.
Hard Commodities
The term hard commodities refers to natural resources that are mined or extracted from the earth, such as metals and energy products like gold (XAU), oil (CL), and natural gas (NG).
It is important to note that hard commodity prices are sensitive to geopolitical events and supply and demand changes, and as such, they are likely to fluctuate. A tangible example of this is the war between Russia and Ukraine which broke off in February 2022. This war caused extreme volatility in energy commodity prices due to the fact that Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy sources. This, in turn, created market jitters and supply and demand issues that affected energy prices greatly. Similarly, the coronavirus pandemic also had an effect on energy prices.
Soft Commodities
Soft commodities include a variety of products that can be grown or raised. Moreover, these types of commodities can be directly affected by weather conditions and politics. Examples of soft commodities include Arabica Coffee (KC), live cattle (LE), wheat (ZW), sugar (SB), and cotton (CT) . For example, in 2021, coffee saw a tremendous increase due to bad weather conditions. In one of the world’s biggest coffee producers, Brazil, a severe frost caused coffee prices to soar to all-time highs on July 2021. Similarly, during the same period, harsh drought in Canada and the US led to a disruption in wheat production. This, in turn, spiked wheat prices tremendously.
