Animal Spirits Podcast Talk Your Book: Why Commodities Are Working
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Feb 16, 2026 Greg Sharenow, a PIMCO managing director specializing in commodity and real-asset strategies, discusses the boom in real assets. He explains how momentum and carry shape commodity trading. He covers ETF structure, futures management, gold demand, and why commodities can rally alongside stocks. He also talks about volatility, risk controls, and practical ways to gain diverse commodities exposure.
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Active, Broad Commodity Exposure
- The PIMCO ETF (CMDT) is a fully active commodity strategy that can invest across and beyond traditional commodity indices.
- It aims to provide inflation and geopolitical hedging by owning a broad set of commodities and active allocations.
Flexible Benchmarking And Dynamic Exposure
- The fund targets Bloomberg Commodity Index as a rough benchmark while remaining go-anywhere and taking 80–120% exposure.
- Momentum can shift allocation and the strategy can de-risk or gear up dynamically to market conditions.
Collateral And Curve Positioning Matter
- Commodity ETFs use futures, so each dollar invested requires collateral which PIMCO actively manages to improve returns above SOFR.
- They also trade further-out contracts to enhance carry and momentum outcomes versus front-month futures.