PDBC ETF: Time To Purchase This Unloved Commodities Fund (NASDAQ:PDBC)

Thesis

The Invesco Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Technique No Okay-1 ETF (NASDAQ:PDBC) is an actively managed exchange-traded fund. The car invests in commodity-linked futures that present financial publicity to a various group of the world’s most closely traded commodities, together with oil, gasoline and gold. As per its literature, the fund:

seeks to supply long-term capital appreciation utilizing an funding technique designed to exceed the efficiency of DBIQ Optimum Yield Diversified Commodity Index Extra Return™ (DBIQ Decide Yield Diversified Comm Index ER) (Benchmark), an index composed of futures contracts on 14 closely traded commodities throughout the vitality, treasured metals, industrial metals and agriculture sectors.

PDBC represents a pure play on commodities costs, and takes a diversified strategy to its portfolio by using futures contracts on 14 completely different commodity courses, thus lowering general volatility and the fund’s customary deviation:

Brent and WTI oil make up over 26% of the fund, whereas oil linked merchandise comparable to gasoline and heating oil (‘NY Harbor ULSD’) cumulatively account for roughly 50% of the ETF.

PDBC represents a diversified tackle commodities, and it’s ideally set-up to benefit from probably the most underweight positionings within the sector since 2017:

The above chart, offered by Financial institution of America and the Each day Shot, represents the outcomes of the BofA World Fund Supervisor Survey, and highlights how institutional buyers are once more severely underweight the asset class. Funding returns work in cycles, and equally to equities when the most important returns are made when peak pessimism is in place, one ought to observe the identical rule for commodities. Purchase them when they’re out of style and promote them when all people is chasing the pattern. Shopping for PDBC in April 2020 would have landed you a considerable achieve till the sentiment peaked in April 2022:

Shopping for when sentiment was at peak-pessimism and promoting when sentiment was at peak-optimism would have generated a value return in extra of +70%. This time can be no completely different versus historic occurrences.

Futures investing vs commodity equities

Investing in commodities by way of futures or futures-based ETFs represents a direct tackle commodity costs, with the implied direct volatility. Commodity equities and commodity equities ETFs comprise various danger components, considered one of them being commodity costs. Whereas commodity equities can characterize a much less unstable tackle the asset class, they exhibit exterior dangers comparable to steadiness sheet administration and strategic orientation for the underlying firm. Moreover a company can go bankrupt, thus utterly wiping out the worth of stated fairness, whereas this isn’t the case by way of futures investing for many commodities.

In our opinion it’s best to make the most of a fund like PDBC when investing in a diversified basket of commodities, whereas equities are preferrable when concentrating on a selected sub-sector of the commodities market. To that finish we’re bullish on the pure gasoline sub-sector and have penned an article concerning the expression of our stance by way of an equities ETF – ‘FCG: Buy The Bottom In Natural Gas Prices‘. Pure gasoline by itself (or by way of futures) is an especially unstable asset class, and investing views are extra aptly expressed by way of pure gasoline equities.

Through its diversification PDBC achieves a normalized portfolio danger profile:

The above desk could be discovered underneath the ‘Threat’ tab on the Searching for Alpha platform, and it highlights the ETF’s customary deviation and annualized volatility. PDBC has a typical deviation comparable with the one exhibited by the S&P 500, and we are able to see the advantages of portfolio diversification by way of its reasonably low 16.13% annualized volatility. As a comparability level, america Pure Gasoline Fund, LP ETF (UNG) which represents a tackle pure gasoline futures, has an annualized volatility of 59%!

The outlook is powerful for oil coming into the brand new 12 months

WTI oil seems to be like it’s bottoming out, bouncing off its long run help stage within the mid 60s:

Technicals play an vital function in commodities investing and buying and selling, and whereas fundamentals take time to develop and modify, technicals normally drive shorter time period strikes. Within the case of oil, massive funding banks additionally see this asset class as a chance going into 2024:

Count on Brent crude to common $90, commodities to restock: OPEC+ has been slicing provide since 2022 and can seemingly hold at it in 2024. Francisco Blanch, head of Commodities and Derivatives Analysis, sees oil demand rising by 1.1 million barrels per day in 2024 as rising markets profit from the tip of the Fed’s financial tightening cycle. But Brent and WTI costs ought to common $90/barrel and $86/barrel, respectively. Recession, faster-than-expected US shale progress, and lack of OPEC+ cohesion are draw back dangers to grease costs. Decrease charges ought to increase gold and result in restocking in industrial metallic.

Supply: Financial institution of America

our technical chart above, the BofA name on WTI pricing places it squarely into our modeled vary, with a backside within the mid 60s and a high at $90/per barrel. With roughly 50% of PDBC invested in oil-linked futures, the robust outlook for oil and associated derivatives ought to translate into a powerful efficiency for PDBC.

Gold might break on the upside in 2024

Gold as a commodity has a 8.7% weighting within the fund, and from a technical standpoint it’s set to interrupt out on the upside into the brand new 12 months:

The above is a transparent long run ‘Cup-and-handle’ sample, which is a really bullish technical indicator. As per Investopedia:

A cup and deal with value sample on a safety’s value chart is a technical indicator that resembles a cup with a deal with, the place the cup is within the form of a “u” and the deal with has a slight downward drift. The cup and deal with is taken into account a bullish sign, with the right-hand facet of the sample sometimes experiencing decrease buying and selling quantity. A revenue goal is set by measuring the space between the underside of the cup and the sample’s breakout stage and increasing that distance upward from the breakout.

A ‘cup and deal with’ technical set-up is adopted by a big rally, which might now become 2024.

Conclusion

PDBC is an alternate traded fund. The car invests in a diversified basket of commodities by way of futures contracts, and represents a balanced option to specific a view on the sector. The fund has a tough 50% weighting to oil-related commodities comparable to Brent contract, WTI contracts, gasoline and heating oil futures, with the remainder allotted to treasured metals and agricultural commodities. The fund had a reasonably flat efficiency in 2023, however 2024 seems to be far more interesting given the general underweight positioning of the funding neighborhood within the asset class, which is operating essentially the most underweight since 2017.

Peak damaging sentiment ranges like at this time’s have been adopted by robust returns, and we really feel this time can be no completely different. With each oil and gold having extraordinarily favorable set-ups going into 2024, we really feel a retail investor is properly served by shopping for into the commodities asset class by way of PDBC.