Physical metal or futures: what a commodity product holds
Whether a commodity product holds the thing itself, such as gold in a vault, or futures contracts on it. The two carry the same label and behave differently.
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Where it misleads
The label says what a product holds, not how it will move. A physical product follows the metal's price less its fee. A futures product follows futures prices, which also carry the effect of replacing contracts as they expire, so over a long stretch it can differ from the commodity's own price. Two gold products can be alike in name and different in everything below it, and a product whose filings the data we use cannot read is left unlabelled.
Compared with
- Roll yield — what replacing expiring futures contracts does to a futures product
- Commodity pool — the futures product that files no list of its contracts
- Sensitivity to priced-in inflation — how a holding of either kind moved against the inflation the bond market prices
How it is computed here
Each commodity holding is sorted from what the SEC data and the product's own name say: a metal trust, or a European ETC whose name says the metal is held, is physical; a registered fund that reports futures contracts in its Form N-PORT is a futures fund; a commodity pool, which files an annual report and no such list, is a futures pool; anything else is shown as not stated, never guessed. For a futures fund the figure to read is its notional amount: the value of the contracts it controls, divided by its net assets, from its latest N-PORT.
Worked example
- The demo portfolio's commodity holdings and their share of it: AUV, physical metal, 7.2%.
- AUV holds the metal in a vault: its price follows the metal's less its fee, and there are no contracts to expire.
- On the portfolio's 20 worst days, AUV rose on 10.
Demo portfolio: seven invented holdings, generated prices, measured by the real engine. Past returns do not predict future ones.
Where it misleads
The label says what a product holds, not how it will move. A physical product follows the metal's price less its fee. A futures product follows futures prices, which also carry the effect of replacing contracts as they expire, so over a long stretch it can differ from the commodity's own price. Two gold products can be alike in name and different in everything below it, and a product whose filings the data we use cannot read is left unlabelled.
Two products, one label
“Commodities” covers products that are not the same thing. The position panel of a commodity says which of three it is, and where that comes from.
| Holds | Files with the SEC | What this site can read | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | the metal itself, in a vault | an annual report (Form 10-K; the Sprott trusts file the Canadian Form 40-F instead); a European ETC files nothing with the SEC | no contracts to read: its price follows the metal's, less the fee |
| Futures fund | futures contracts, in a registered fund | a full fund report (Form N-PORT) that lists every contract | the notional amount of its contracts over its net assets |
| Futures pool | futures contracts, in a commodity pool | an annual report (Form 10-K) and no N-PORT | none of its contracts: only its own prices |
Anything that fits none of the three is shown as not stated, never guessed.
A worked example on real filings
Read from the SEC's public data on 2 October 2026:
- SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) holds gold. It files a 10-K and has never filed a Form N-PORT: a trust that holds a bar has no contracts to list.
- PDBC is a registered fund that holds futures. Its Form N-PORT for 31 July 2026 has 53 lines, and the contracts among them have a notional amount of 1.11 times its net assets: for every 100 dollars of net assets, contracts worth 111.
- Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) is a commodity pool. It files a 10-K and no N-PORT, so none of its contracts are in the data we use.
Three products a broker may file under one heading, and three different answers to “what do I own?”.
What it changes when you read your numbers
- A physical product's daily moves are the metal's, less a small fee.
- A futures product's moves also carry the cost or gain of replacing contracts as they expire (see roll yield); over a long stretch it can differ from the commodity's own price.
- For a futures fund, a notional share near 1 means its contracts control about as much as the fund is worth; 1.11 means a little more.
Compared with
- Roll yield — what replacing expiring futures contracts does to a futures product
- Commodity pool — the futures product that files no list of its contracts
- Sensitivity to priced-in inflation — how a holding of either kind moved against the inflation the bond market prices
Questions people ask
Is gold held in a vault the same as a gold futures fund?
No. A product that holds the metal follows its price less the fee. A futures product holds contracts that expire and are replaced, so over a long stretch its return can differ from the metal's price, in either direction.
Why does the site sometimes show no label for a commodity product?
Because the data we use does not say what it holds. A wrong label on someone's money is worse than none, so the product is shown without one rather than with a guess.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR: company tickers and Form N-PORT filings (public data)
Last reviewed 2 Oct 2026 by Sphinx Risk.