The 2014 Commy Awards – Coffee Is The Big Winner

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There’s the Emmy Awards, the Webby’s, the ESPY’s, (why do they all end in y’s), but no commodity awards as far as we know… Let’s see if we can’t do something about that, with the first (and perhaps last) edition of the Commy Awards:

(All Charts Courtesy: Finviz)

The ‘you probably didn’t benefit one bit from this’ market of the year = Coffee

In February, the coffee market shot up and never looked back, up around 48% on the year. However, unless you play with coffee ETF $JO, or are invested in a smaller niche managed futures manager – there’s no way you caught this move. It’s a shame too, because it was one heck of a move, and it all happened in first 2 months.

Coffee(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

The Most likely to get your Houston Neighbor’s Grand Piano repossessed = Crude Oil

No one saw the crude implosion coming. Well maybe not nobody… but crude dropping almost  50% in 4 months was something trend followers sure enjoyed, even while the Russian government (and Ruble) did not. At 8.9 million barrels per day produced in US – that’s $411.7 million not there anymore… that’s a lot of pianos.

Crude(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

The most popular, for no apparent reason = Gold

No matter how much the gold market moves, it’s the commodity market people love to write about, and people love to read about. Even though it finished the year basically unchanged, down -0.4% – there were reams and reams of digital ink written about its demise, its comeback, its luster, and its non-performance? And all for what? So that they can say they were wrong last time, and might be right this next time?  Honorable mention goes to the rest of the metals crowd, which actually fell quite a bit more than Gold.

Gold(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

The S&P..who?  Award = Cattle

The S&P 500 wasn’t the the only market hitting new all time highs throughout 2014, so was Cattle. The problem? Not too many noticed or wrote about it, and it doesn’t count if it was an article about higher beef prices at the grocery store.

Live Cattle(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

The Market most likely to make you look like an Idiot (Again) = US Bonds

Earning its 5th straight award in this category is the Bond market. 2014 was supposed to be the year for higher Interest Rates and Lower Bond prices, except it wasn’t. The US Bond Aggregate Index ETF ($AGG)  ended the year up 5.50% for the yr and rates dropped from  3.9 to 2.7, while everyone and their sister thought higher rates in store in ‘14 Bonds. You think yields will continue to drop or has it finally reached its lowest point? Are you willing to say it will go the other way? How about asking the people that made the same decision last year.

30 Yr Bond(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

The Most (un)Likely to Succeed / Best Closer = US Dollar

It had its best quarter in 4 years, while other currencies fell flat. But it wasn’t just what it did, it was how it did it – closing fast. For the first six months, the USD didn’t move, while the last 6 months resulted with an up move of 13%.

USD(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

The Most Likely Cause of your Acid Reflux = Corn

It’s hard to trade a market that has three consistent trend reversals in one year. From January to May it was up about 20%, then fell around 36% over the next 5 months, and rebounded 24% to close out the year. You must have a strong stomach to dabble in this market (honorable mention = Nat Gas)

Corn(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

The Jennifer Aniston = U.S. Stock Indices

This year saw US stocks pile onto the already outstanding run the stock market has been on over the past 5 years, so while the stock market run may be getting a bit older… it’s still looking good, just like Jennifer Aniston.

US STocks(Disclaimer: Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)

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