What is commodity trading and how does it work?

Dive into the commodity trading market and understand how the world's most valuable resources like gold and oil are traded.

What are commodities?

A commodity is an essential raw material – like gold or wheat – that can be bought or sold on the open market.

Commodities can be split into two categories: soft commodities and hard commodities. Precious metals like gold or silver, and energy such as oil, are considered hard commodities, while agricultural products – like coffee or cocoa – are considered soft commodities.

What is Commodity Trading?

Commodities in front of a laptop graphic

When you trade a commodity, you are speculating on the price change of a raw physical asset, like gold or oil. Many factors – especially supply and demand – will impact the market price.

When you trade commodities online with Axi, you don’t take ownership of the underlying asset (for example, a bar of gold). Instead, you trade a “futures contract”, also known as a Contract for Difference (CFD) that gets derived from the real-time price movements of the underlying asset. So, if the purchase price of gold goes up, the traded price does too.

While this concept might sound confusing at first, a CFD trade is simply an agreement between the buyer and seller to complete a transaction for a set price and time. Find out more about how to trade commodities.

What are the types of commodities on the market?

Commodities can be categorised into two types: 

  • Hard commodities: A hard commodity is mined from the earth or extracted from natural resources.
  • Soft commodities: A soft commodity can be grown on agricultural farms or extracted from another parent substance.

These can be further split into four sub-categories: metals, energy, agriculture and livestock.


What commodity CFDs are available at Axi?

The following table shows all the commodity cash CFDs, commodity future CFDs and bullion spot CFDs available to trade with Axi.

 Bullion Spot CFDs  
Symbol Market Description
XAGUSD Silver vs US Dollar
XAUAUD Gold vs Australian Dollar
XAUCHF Gold vs Swiss Franc
XAUEUR Gold vs Euro
XAUGBP Gold vs British Pound
XAUUSD Gold vs US Dollar
XPTUSD Platinum vs US Dollar
 Cash CFDs  
Symbol Market Description
USOIL US Crude Oil
UKOIL UK Crude Oil
 Futures CFDs  
Symbol Market Description
BRENT.fs Brent Crude Futures CFD
COCOA.fs Cocoa Futures CFD
COFFEE.fs Coffee Futures CFD
COPPER.fs Copper Futures CFD
GOLD.fs Gold Futures CFD
NATGAS.fs US Natural Gas Futures CFD
SILVER.fs Silver Futures CFD
SOYBEAN.fs Soybean Futures CFD
WTI.fs WTI Crude Oil Futures CFD

What causes the price of commodities to change?

Understand what moves the commodities markets and stay on top of the major trends.

Supply vs demand

The fundamental rule in the market is that commodity prices will rise with an increase in demand. This ties in with income and population, the cost of production of the commodity, and the actions of governments and producer organisations.

Commodity production

Production of commodities is influenced by natural factors like weather and crop conditions, cultivation land, trade constraints, subsidies, taxes, and production-related factors like labor patterns, development in farming tools & technologies used.

Cost of production

Commodity production costs include raw materials, labor/wages, research and development, insurance, licensing fees, taxes, and much more. An increase in production costs will have a direct impact of the price of the commodity being produced.

Economic growth

The prosperity of a country indicates the purchasing power of its population. This effect is more obvious in countries that are major producers or consumers. As the economy grows and urbanises, they typically consume a larger amount of commodities.

What are the advantages of trading commodities?

Learn why commodities are some of the world's top traded products



Commodity futures offer high liquidity, giving investors flexibility to liquidate positions when required.

Low margin

Low margin

The margin deposit required to start futures trading can be as low as 5–10% of the total value of the contract.

Hedging capabilities

Hedging capabilities

Investing in commodities as a hedging instrument can help with risk management.

Portfolio diversification

Portfolio diversification

Commodities are a popular way for traders to diversify an investment portfolio.

Protection against inflation

Protection against inflation

Economically important, commodities can maintain their value even during times of high inflation.



Apply leverage to use a small amount of margin to open higher value trade positions.

What are the risks of trading commodities?

Understand the importance of balancing risk and opportunities. when you trade commodities.



Supply and demand have a huge influence on commodity prices, so traders should be mindful of market trends before speculating on a commodity’s price.

Surprise events

Surprise events

There’s sometimes no warning of major events (political, natural disasters) that can affect the price of a particular commodity, meaning traders can be caught by surprise.

Market inexperience

Market inexperience

Anyone new to commodities trading should make extra effort to understand price volatility that can be caused by political, economic and currency instability.

Discover more markets to trade with Axi

Choose from a variety of global markets to trade with Axi, using ultra competitive spreads & flexible leverage to trade your edge.

Commodities trading FAQs

The spot price for a commodity is the local cash price for immediate purchase and delivery of the commodity. It indicates the current quote for the commodity and means that the trading of the commodity is done "on the spot" - hence the name. In a spot market, transactions are settled within a few days.

The futures price for a commodity means agreeing on a predetermined price for the transaction that will occur at a later date in the future. This set “future’s price” is calculated as follows:

Commodities current spot price plus the cost of storage or cost of carrying in the intermediate period before delivery. The latter price in the equation also includes interest, insurance, and other incidental expenses.

Stay up to date on the latest news with our daily and weekly oil trading market analysis and outlooks at the Axi blog.

Keep yourself educated on all things gold, silver and copper by following our expert market analysts with weekly precious metals updates.

Trade commodities online with Axi

Sign up for a live trading account or try a free demo trading account to experience a real trading environment.

Open Account Try a Free Demo