Managing Editor

A Bumper Crop of Agricultural Products

GCC is a broad-based commodity index tracker. While GCC INCLUDES agricultural commodities, it isn't LIMITED to ags like the products compared in the table.

Two Rainy Weeks from Armageddon

Those short ag products are, in fact, a reality.

On April 15, Deutsche Bank launched a suite of four new exchange-traded notes, including ADZ (short 1x) and AGA (short 2x) that track the Deutsche Bank Optimum Yield Agriculture Index, a benchmark comprised of futures on CBOT wheat, corn, soybeans and ICE world sugar.

There hasn't been much effect from hedge activity since the ETNs' debut. According to the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission reports, short index open interest was esssentially flat in the week ending April 22. This, in part, It may be a result of DB's floatattion of two complementary long-side notes (AGF and DAG) in the April 15 offer. Selling hedges by swaps dealers might have been unnecessary at this point because of the long note exposure on their books.

You can keep track of developments on HardAssetsInvestor.com.