Rogers Index Licensed to Funds

Commenting in my previous post, George from Fat Pitch Financials and Value Investing News asked if I knew of any investment plays on the rising food costs around the globe.

I basically don't -- except playing commodities related to food. There may be some common stocks, but I haven't come across any, though I haven't looked for any, either. I told George that some years ago Jim Rogers created his own commodity index which I believe includes agriculture and food products.

Rogers is interviewed in the current issue of Barron's:

Rogers, 65, doesn't run others' money these days, though an index he developed in the late 1990s, the Rogers International Commodities Index, has been licensed to some funds. Its cumulative return, from inception in 1998 through the end of March, was more than 380%, versus about 38% for the S&P 500.

I don't know the names of the funds, and whether they're ETFs, closed or open ended (let alone the account minimums).

I stress here that I'm not playing commodities. But anyone suddenly joining the bull crowd would probably be better off buying something like the Rogers index in a fund. Playing the futures game is certainly outside my tiny circle of competence.

My hunch is that the time to have jumped into this was several years ago. But hey, I could be wrong.

Comments

[appol]

Look here:
http://www.elementsetn.com/ProductsPage.aspx

[Shahin Khezri]

John,

Rogers has his own Agg. ETF, symbol RJA. The difference between his index and others is his specific weighings. Further, he has stated the only way he buys agg. commodities is through this (RJA).

S.K.

[me]

RJI is his total commodity index ETF.

[John]

Thanks for the feedback and links, gentlemen. Readers will hopefully find them of use.

[David]

John and gang,

Your comments reminded me of a few links I had saved on this topic. Here they are, hopefully this will provide a little added info on these ETFs and ETNs.

http://www.thestreet.com/s/trade-commodities-like-legend-jim-rogers/funds/etf/10387113.html?puc=_tscrss

http://seekingalpha.com/article/30369-commodity-etfs-and-etns

I have not traded or bought any of these products to date, so can't impart any first-hand experience on these.

You may also be interested in this recent post from my blog on rising food and agricultural commodity prices.

http://financetrends.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-rising-food-prices.html

Good reading!