Commodities are unprocessed basic goods or natural products such as natural gas (Natgas) oil, coffee, gold, silver, and cocoa, which are widely exchanged and in large quantities. These products are considered uniform, that is, products that can be easily replaced by others because they have similar characteristics and serve the same purpose.

There are four main categories of commodities: a) agricultural products such as coffee and sugar; b) energy products such as oil and gas; c) metal products such as gold, silver, and copper; and d) livestock and meat products. Not all commodities have the same liquidity, and therefore, some are traded more than others like oil and gold.

Most commodities transactions are conducted online through regulated product exchanges. This means that you do not need to buy one barrel of oil and keep it at home to trade with commodities. Most negotiations are carried out through future contracts. In this type of contract, the seller of a contract agrees to deliver a certain quantity of a product on a specific date, and the buyer agrees to receive it.

The fact that futures contracts allow to buy or sell commodities without storing them enables speculators to be part of the market, which can have an impact on prices, in addition to the general factors of supply, demand, growth cycles, climate, etc.

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