Le marché des matières premières est l’un des plus anciens marchés jusqu’ici, les plus anciens documents relatifs aux transactions de matières premières remontant à la période prédynastique de l’Egypte antique et à la bourse du riz de Dojima au Japon. Pourtant, malgré son histoire ancienne et la modernisation d’aujourd’hui, ce marché constitue l’un des marchés les plus tradés dans le monde et il comprend quelques-unes des matières premières essentielles à notre vie quotidienne. Dès lors, il n’est peut-être pas surprenant que les traders, comme les investisseurs, veulent tout naturellement avoir accès à ce marché vital et que les CFDs sur matières premières de Plus500 soit l’une des façons de le faire. Voici ce que vous devez savoir à propos du marché des matières premières, quelques exemples de matières premières et la façon de les trader avec la plateforme de trading de Plus500.
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.
