Commodities in general are broadly higher today. I have been reading over the weekend about the various different indexes used in creating different commodity indexes. Here is a very good primer on the various different ways that ETF companies calculate and manage the commodities in their indexes. It is published by Deutsche Bank in conjunction with the Proshares ETF family, which it sponsors. Obviously, any ETF provider is going to favor its own methodologies of selecting and managing commodities. In light of this bias, it makes sense for any investor to carefully study the available published material and weight that bias against the available data. However, after reading DB's primer (not light reading, but interesting and educational nonetheless), I admit a bias for the DB/Proshares products myself. They are probably the most liquid of all commodities ETFs, consistently maintain the tightest spreads, and make a very strong case for their methodology being the best for investors. See what you think after reading their brochure regarding the many different commodity indexes. I have also included two links to other index-related materials.Deutsche Bank Guide to Commodity Indexes
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