A physical or virtual marketplace for buying, selling and trading raw or primary products. For investors’ purposes there are currently about 50 major commodity markets worldwide that facilitate investment trade in nearly 100 primary commodities. Commodities are split into two types: hard and soft commodities. Hard commodities are typically natural resources that must be mined or extracted (gold, rubber, oil, etc.), whereas soft commodities are agricultural products or livestock (corn, wheat, coffee, sugar, soybeans, pork, etc.)
