A commodity is a raw material — gold, oil, copper, wheat — and it pays nothing: no earnings, no dividend, no coupon. Its return is entirely its price. People hold gold as a store of value, something that has kept purchasing power over very long periods and has sometimes held up when shares or currencies fell — sometimes, not reliably. Most investors hold it through an ETC, an exchange-traded commodity backed by metal held in a vault or by futures contracts.
Futures-based funds have a cost physical ones don't. When later-dated futures cost more than the current price — contango — the fund keeps selling expiring contracts cheaply and buying the next ones dearer, which can drag its return below the commodity's price for years. In the app a gold ETC is tracked like a share, with no dividends and no sector; physical gold can only be entered by hand as another asset on the Portfolio page. With no income, the only return is the price, and commodity prices can fall for years at a time.
Futures-based commodity funds can lag the commodity itself for years.
Educational content only. It is not personal financial advice.