Mineral Economics

, Volume 31, Issue 1–2, pp 87–102 | Cite as

Investor sentiment and market fundamentals: the impact of index investment on energy and metals markets

Original Paper
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Abstract

The academic consensus is that index investment over the recent period of elevated commodity price did not affect returns. This view relies very largely on the analysis of US agricultural future markets for which the CFTC has provided index position data. That conclusion is correct but overlooks evidence that there were strong impacts on energy and metal markets where it is necessary to infer index positions from the agricultural data. Furthermore, these impacts are persistent. I follow Singleton (Management Science, 60, 300–318, 2014) in arguing that the impacts reflect changes in investor sentiment, reflected in changes in risk premia, and not informational advantage.

Keywords

Commodity futures Index investment Non-ferrous metals Energy 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.SAIS Bologna CenterJohns Hopkins UniversityBolognaItaly

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