HardAssetsInvestor

Written by Brad Zigler  |

January 25, 2008

We've Got Options. Sort Of.

Details

At HAI, we're all about alternatives.

Last month, a Desktop commentary ("Spreading The Word About ETF/ETN Spreads") pointed out the profit potential of a long/short spread pitting the iPath and ELEMENTS agricultural index notes (NYSE Arca:JJA and AMEX:RJA, respectively) against the metals notes in the same family (NYSE Arca:JJM and AMEX:RJZ).

A reader subsequently commented that ETN short sales are not always easy to execute. That's true, at least to the extent that the supply of borrowable notes is largely dependent upon margin account inventories and the skill of a broker's stock loan desk.

There are other, um, options, for commodity-minded investors, though. Literally. There are a few - a very few - commodity ETFs that serve as underlying assets for options.

Options are contracts that provide their buyers, over a specific period of time, with the right to buy (in the case of calls) or sell (for puts) the underlying fund shares at a predetermined price. The purchase of calls can be thought of as a contingent long position in the ETF, while buying puts (if one doesn't already own the underlying ETF shares), is a contingent short.

Since they can be bought or sold short in myriad combinations, options have tremendous versatility as investment and hedging tools.

Examples of option strategies as well as vast amounts of educational material can be found at the Option Industry Council's Web site (http://www.optionseducation.org/).

That's the good news.

The not-so-good news is the dearth of options, er, options on commodity products.

First of all, you won't find options for any commodity ETNs. As debt instruments, ETNs aren't created in the same manner as equities. There aren't any options on the grantor trusts holding bullion, either.

Nope, all you'll find are options on plain-vanilla ETFs comprised of futures contracts. And that universe isn't very large:

Broad-Based Commodity Indexes

GSG - iShares S&P/Goldman Sachs Commodity Index

DBC - PowerShares Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index

 

Precious Metals

DGL - PowerShares Deutsche Bank Gold Fund

DBS - PowerShares Deutsche Bank Silver Fund

 

Energy

USO - United States Oil Fund

USL - United States 12-Month Oil Fund

UNG - United States Natural Gas Fund

DBE - PowerShares Deutsche Bank Energy Fund

 

Industrial Metals

DBB - PowerShares Deutsche Bank Base Metals Fund

 

Agriculture

DBA - PowerShares Deutsche Bank Agriculture Fund

From this list, it's not hard to see which ETF issuer has taken a shine to options. By supporting the listing of options on the entire suite of its commodity products, Deutsche Bank has given investors more ways to shade investment expectations and protect gains.

We'll look at that next week ...