[noppenbd]

Originally Posted by jIM_Ohio

My thought is I would use commodities and energy for a portfolio I wanted to be stable- get consistent 5-7% returns. If I wanted higher returns (8-12%) I would look to other investments.

So while accumulating for retirement, bad
while spending money (retired) a great idea.

Israelson's study:

I looked first at the accumulation portfolios. (See "Accumulation Phase Portfolios," below.) In the aggressive portfolio, adding an alternative asset of any kind produced a higher return than the core [90% stock/10% bonds] portfolio alone. Energy had the greatest impact over this particular 20-year period ($104,786 versus $78,127). But Adding commodities improved the worst one-month percentage loss more than any of the other alternative assets, from -21.3 to -13.6%). Adding a composite mix of energy, real estate and precious metals to the core portfolio reduced the worst one-year calendar loss to -8.8% compared to -16.6% in the core portfolio alone.

Quasi-Commodities? - Articles - Financial Planning