Copper exchange-traded funds are managed fund investments that have exposure to copper. Copper is a traded instrument on the commodity market, so copper ETFs can qualify to be called a form of commodity ETF investment.
One reason why copper ETFs are very popular can be ascribed to the metal that they are based around; copper itself. Copper is one of the most widely used items by the human race today. Every house that has some form of electrical wiring uses copper. Chances are that you have a cooking ware that is made from copper. Copper is used a lot in many household and electrical items, making it a highly sought after non-precious metal. The fact that the Chinese government has been buying up large amounts of copper bullion has further added economic value to copper.
There are several copper ETFs available for investors. Some of these are:
1) The UBS iPath Copper Fund.
2) The Dow Jones-UBS Copper Subindex Total Return, a sub-index of the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return, reflects the returns that are potentially available through an unleveraged investment in the futures contracts on physical commodities comprising the index plus the rate of interest that could be earned on cash collateral invested in specified Treasury Bills. This index includes the contract in the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index Total Return that relates to a single commodity, copper (currently the Copper High Grade futures contract traded on the COMEX). It is presently valued at $51.71.
3) The PowerShares DB Base Metals ETF (DBB) which affords exposure to prices of copper, zinc and aluminum. This is not a pure copper ETF unlike the UBS iPath Copper Fund.
There are other forms of leveraged copper ETFs available to investors.
The ETFs Leveraged Copper ETF (LCOP) is a copper ETF that is traded on the London Stock Exchange. Managed by ETF Securities as the fund manager, the leveraged nature of LCOP means that only investors who understand shorting and leveraged investment strategies should partake in it. It is not very suitable for risk-averse investors.
Other examples of ETFS are:
1)The ETFS Copper ETF (COPA-LSE)
2) ETFS Short Copper ETF (SCOP-LSE)