Commodities are traded in specialized exchanges such as the Chicago Board of Trade and the New York Mercantile Exchange and are not suitable investments for low risk tolerant investors. Hedge funds invest capital in commodities and are often re-marketed as suitable investments for individuals. That is why commodity arbitration matters can open a window into a product sold to an individual investor who suffered losses. Here's how it works: find an aggressive securities fraud lawyer in your area and have him search for active commodities arbitrations. Most of these arbitrations are conducted under the auspices of the National Futures Association or the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission, if not directly they are usually involved in regulatory enforcement collateral to commodity arbitration matters.

Finding an arbitration involving commodities fraud can lead you to an investment pool and back to your portfolio. An active trading financial advisor who is seeking to capture higher rates of return in declining equities markets will often look for and, sadly, find the wrong place to put his best clients. Commodities arbitration researchers will find threads which lead into hedge funds and re-marketed security positions through unrelated but systemically poisoned vehicles. Fine sounding funds with high returns are often married to or related to commodities trades on massive scales, some of which are winners most of which are losers.

If you have a significant loss of capital, that being in excess of 50% it is a clue that you may have been sold into a commodities investment for which you are unsuited. If your investment advisor or financial advisor has placed you in unsuitable investments in commodities: uncovering the arbitration awards is the key to a claim against your broker or his firm. Just because it doesn't say pork bellies in the name doesn't mean you haven't been traded into a hedge fund which took a position in unsuitable commodities. Find commodity arbitration, find the principles, trace the names of the entities and you may well find it in your portfolio. You then have bootstrapped your claim into an account fraud switch, and a possible brokerage firm liability for failure to reveal either an inherent conflict between your risk level and the investment vehicle which your financial advisor placed you, or a fraud when your were sold into an investment at the behest of or with the sponsorship of his firm.