Strategic Asset Allocation in the Times of Financialized Commodity Markets

Abstract

The paper concentrates on the benefits of passive commodity investments in the context of the phenomenon of financialization. I investigate the implications of increase in the correlation between equity and commodity investments for commodity investors. The paper is composed of several parts. First, I describe the attributes of commodity investments and their benefits in the portfolio optimization. Second, I define the phenomenon of the finanzialization and develop my research hypothesis. Third, the section includes a description of data sources, research methods employed. Next, I present the results of the empirical analysis. I simulate the mean-variance spanning tests to examine the benefits of commodity investments before and after accounting for the impact of financialization. I proceed separate analysis for pre- and post-financialization period. The empirical research is based on asset classes’ returns and other related variables from years 1991-2012. The performed research indicates that the market financialization may have significant implications for commodity investors. Because of the increase in correlations, the inclusion of the commodity futures in the traditional stock-bond portfolio appears to be no longer reasonable.