Alternatives
Everything beyond stocks and bonds lives here: crude oil benchmarks like WTI and Brent, natural gas, industrial and precious metals, freight, real assets, and private markets.
The explainers in this category show how each market is priced, why futures curves slope the way they do, and how roll yield, storage, and convenience yield drive returns.
Private equity, real estate, and infrastructure get the same treatment, with the cash flows and lock-up risks an allocator has to live with.
Investing With Purpose writes these as working tools rather than buzzwords, so you finish knowing how a commodity contract behaves and what private market exposure actually costs to hold.
A REIT is a company that owns or finances income-producing real estate and pays out most of its earnings as dividends.…
Funds From Operations (FFO), Adjusted Funds From Operations (AFFO), and capitalization rate are the three numbers that…
The commodity futures curve is a plot of futures prices for the same commodity across different delivery months. Its…
Contango and backwardation describe the two possible shapes of a commodity futures curve. Contango means futures trade…
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent are the two global crude oil benchmarks. WTI prices oil produced and delivered…
Gold is the oldest non-government store of value still in active use. It pays no interest, produces no earnings, and is…
Private equity is investing in companies that are not publicly traded, usually through pooled funds that buy…
Venture capital is equity investing in young, high-growth private companies that are too risky for banks and too early…
Hedge funds are private pooled investment vehicles that use a wide range of tactics, including short selling, leverage,…
Infrastructure investing buys long-lived physical assets that deliver essential services: toll roads, airports,…
Timberland and farmland are real-asset classes where the underlying investment is productive land. Institutional…
Art and collectibles, including fine art, rare coins, vintage wine, classic cars, and luxury watches, are tangible…
A cryptocurrency is a digital asset whose ownership and transfers are recorded on a blockchain, a distributed ledger…
A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to hold a fixed value, usually one US dollar. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is…
A **long-only** product holds assets and takes their full market exposure. A **hedged** product pairs longs with shorts…
Private credit, especially direct lending to middle-market companies, grew from a niche into one of the…
Commercial real estate, especially US offices, is working through the largest valuation reset since 2008. Hybrid work,…
WTI crude oil is the main price benchmark for oil produced and traded in North America. It refers to West Texas…
Brent crude oil is the world's most widely used oil price benchmark. It refers to a blend of North Sea crude streams…
RBOB gasoline futures are the main exchange-traded benchmark for wholesale gasoline in the United States. RBOB stands…
Henry Hub natural gas is the benchmark price for natural gas in the United States. It refers to a physical pipeline…
Natural gas liquids (NGLs) are the heavier hydrocarbons separated out when raw natural gas is processed. They include…
Propane Mont Belvieu is the benchmark price for propane in the United States, named after the Texas hub where most US…
Copper futures on the LME and COMEX set the global price for the red metal used in wiring, construction, and…
Aluminum LME futures set the world reference price for the lightweight metal used in cans, cars, aircraft, and…
Iron ore 62% Fe is the global benchmark grade for the main raw material in steel. The reference price is for ore with…
Steel rebar and hot-rolled coil (HRC) are the two finished-steel products that trade most actively. HRC is flat steel…
Gold futures COMEX is the benchmark contract used to buy or sell gold for future delivery, traded on the COMEX division…
Silver futures COMEX is the benchmark contract for trading silver for future delivery, listed on the COMEX division of…
Platinum futures NYMEX is the benchmark contract for trading platinum for future delivery, listed on the NYMEX division…
Palladium futures NYMEX is the benchmark contract for trading palladium for future delivery, listed on the NYMEX…
The LBMA gold silver fix is the twice-daily auction in London that sets the benchmark price for gold, with a separate…
Corn futures CBOT is the benchmark grain contract for trading corn for future delivery, listed on the Chicago Board of…
Soft red winter wheat CBOT is the benchmark wheat contract for trading wheat for future delivery, listed on the Chicago…
Hard red winter wheat KC is the futures contract that prices the high protein wheat grown across the US Great Plains…
Hard red spring wheat MGEX is the futures contract for the highest protein milling wheat grown in the northern US…
Soybeans futures CBOT are the world benchmark for pricing the most traded oilseed on the planet. One contract…
Soybean meal futures price the high protein animal feed left after oil is pressed from soybeans. The contract is one of…
Soybean oil futures price the vegetable oil pressed from soybeans, used in cooking and increasingly in renewable…
Oats futures CBOT price the small grain used in cereals, livestock feed, and food products. It is the thinnest of the…
Rough rice futures CBOT price US long grain rice in its unmilled form, still in the husk. The contract is quoted per…
Sugar No. 11 world raw is the global benchmark futures contract for raw cane sugar traded for export. It prices…
Sugar No. 16 domestic US is the futures contract for raw cane sugar delivered inside the protected US market. It…
Cocoa futures ICE are the global benchmark for pricing the beans that become chocolate. Each contract covers 10 metric…
The arabica coffee C futures contract is the world benchmark for high grade washed arabica beans. It trades on ICE…
Robusta coffee futures are the global benchmark for the hardier, lower cost coffee species that fills most instant…
Cotton No. 2 futures ICE list on ICE Futures U.S. as the global price benchmark for U.S. grown upland cotton. The…
Live cattle futures CME price finished steers ready for slaughter. The contract is the benchmark feedlots, packers, and…
Feeder cattle futures CME price young cattle that are ready to enter a feedlot. The contract is the benchmark used to…
Lean hogs futures CME price the value of hog carcasses headed to the pork market. The contract is the benchmark…
Class III milk futures, traded on the CME, price the milk used to make cheese. The contract is the main hedging tool…
Cheese block futures CME price the 40 pound cheddar blocks that set much of the U.S. dairy market. The contract lets…
Frozen orange juice FCOJ futures trade on ICE Futures U.S. and price the global market for orange juice solids. The…
Lumber futures spruce pine fir trade on the CME and price the framing lumber used in home construction. The contract is…
Random length lumber was the long-running futures contract that let homebuilders, sawmills, and traders hedge the price…
Cotton bale delivery mechanics describe exactly how the benchmark cotton futures contract turns into physical fiber…
The wool futures market is a small but instructive corner of soft commodities, built on top of a physical auction…
Rubber futures on TOCOM and in Singapore are the reference prices for natural rubber, the tree-tapped raw material…
Ethanol futures on the CBOT let producers, blenders, and traders hedge the price of corn-based fuel ethanol. The…
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is a daily measure of what it costs to ship dry bulk goods such as iron ore, coal, and grain…
Storage sits at the heart of every physical commodity market. Whether the curve is in contango or backwardation, how…
OPEC+ coordinates roughly half of the world's crude oil supply through negotiated production ceilings. The way those…
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the world's largest government-controlled crude oil stockpile. Created after the…
Agricultural commodity prices respond to an accounting identity that every trader on the CME corn pit learns in their…
The London Metal Exchange operates the world's largest physical delivery network for industrial metals. Its warehouse…
A private equity fund is a closed-end pooled investment vehicle that raises committed capital from institutional and…
The economic split between limited partners and general partners in a private equity fund is the core lever that drives…
The distribution waterfall defines the order and conditions under which proceeds from portfolio exits flow back to…
A clawback is a contractual mechanism that forces the general partner to return carried interest previously distributed…
A GP-led secondary is a transaction in which the general partner of an existing private equity fund arranges the sale…
A NAV loan is a credit facility made to a private equity fund and secured by the net asset value of the fund's…
A continuation fund is a new limited partnership created by an existing general partner to acquire one or more…
A fund of funds is a pooled vehicle that invests in other private funds rather than directly in portfolio companies or…
Farmland investing means putting capital into agricultural land, either directly or through a fund, and earning returns…
Timberland investing means buying working forests for the combined return from growing trees, harvesting and selling…
Infrastructure equity is an ownership stake in long-life physical assets that deliver essential services, things like…
Infrastructure debt is the fixed-income side of the same assets that infrastructure equity invests in. Lenders provide…
A royalty trust is a pass-through entity that owns non-operating interests in producing natural resource properties and…
An art investment fund pools capital from multiple investors to buy, hold, and eventually sell fine art, with the goal…
Wine and collectibles investing means putting capital into physical objects with scarcity value, things like fine wine,…
Film finance is the practice of providing capital to movie and series production in exchange for a share of future…
Music royalties investing means buying the right to future cash flows from songs. Investors pay a catalog owner up…
Litigation finance is the practice of providing non-recourse capital to fund legal claims in exchange for a share of…
The Dubai/Oman crude benchmark is the main price reference for medium, sour crude flowing from the Middle East to Asia.…
Heating oil No. 2 futures are the original distillate fuel benchmark traded on the NYMEX exchange. The contract heats…
The jet fuel kerosene market prices the fuel that powers commercial aviation. Unlike crude oil, jet fuel has no single…
Ultra-low-sulfur diesel ULSD is the standard road diesel sold across most developed markets, and its futures contract…
TTF natural gas Europe is the leading benchmark for wholesale gas prices on the continent. TTF stands for Title…
JKM is the benchmark price for spot liquefied natural gas delivered to Northeast Asia. The letters stand for Japan…
Zinc LME futures price the metal that coats steel to stop it from rusting, a process called galvanizing. The London…
Lead LME futures price the metal used mainly in batteries, from car starters to backup power. The London Metal Exchange…
Nickel LME futures price the metal used in stainless steel and electric-vehicle batteries. The London Metal Exchange…
Tin LME futures price the metal that solders the world's electronics together. The London Metal Exchange contract…
The rhodium physical market is where this rare platinum group metal changes hands through dealer quotes rather than an…
The iridium ruthenium PGM market covers two of the smallest platinum group metals, used in electronics, chemical…
The osmium investment market is one of the smallest and most specialized corners of the precious metals world. Osmium…
EU carbon allowances (EUA) are tradable permits that let a company emit one tonne of carbon dioxide under the European…
Dirty tanker freight rates measure what it costs to ship crude oil and heavy fuel oil across the oceans. The "dirty"…
Clean tanker freight rates measure what it costs to ship refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, and jet…
Lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) is the common unit the battery metal industry uses to compare different lithium…