The Morningstar Commodity Index family consists of five indexes providing diversified commodity exposure. Each index employs different strategic combinations of long futures, short futures, and cash.
The Long-Only Commodity Index takes a long-only approach—the purest way to gain passive exposure to commodities. Alternatively, the Long/Short Commodity Index codifies research on price momentum and futures curves in commodity markets, adding short positions to a passive approach. The Long/Flat Commodity Index has a lower-risk approach analogous to the long/short index except it holds cash instead of shorting commodity futures with a negative price momentum. The Short/Flat Commodity Index is comparable to the long/short index but also holds cash instead of taking a long position on commodity futures with a positive momentum signal.
These indexes can be used to create investment products that offer an opportunity to diversify a portfolio through controlled exposure to commodities.
 
