[quote=ucodegen]ETFs are not a commodities, but they are taxed the same as stocks on gain (long term vs short term). Dividends are not taxed but may be taxed in the foreign country. If taxed in the foreign country you ‘may’ get the ability to write off that tax against any taxable income in the states.
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Forgot to address this. This article is from 2010, speaking about the dislocations between ~2007-2009:
Turning commodity futures into securities unleashed a much larger sales force — stockbrokers selling a product many of them didn’t understand, he says. Passive buy-and-hold investors at one point in mid-2008 held the equivalent of three years of production of soft red winter wheat. Wall Street’s success in attracting those buyers boosted demand for futures contracts, which helped determine what consumers would pay for baked goods.
Wheat prices jumped 52 percent in early 2008, setting records before plunging again, and sugar more than doubled last year even as the economy slowed, forcing Reinwald’s Bakery in Huntington, New York, to fire five of its 32 employees. “You try and budget to make money, but that’s becoming impossible to predict,” says owner Richard Reinwald, chairman of the Retail Bakers of America.
Cocoa futures reached a 30-year high early this year because of speculators, according to Juergen Steinemann, chief executive officer of the world’s largest maker of bulk chocolate, Zurich-based Barry Callebaut. At the airport, the new $25 charge for checking a suitcase exists partly because airlines have to set aside cash to hedge against sharper ups and downs in oil prices, says Bob Fornaro, CEO of AirTran Holdings. “This has been very, very good for Wall Street,” he says.
