The Modern Commodity Handbook
The Periodic Table
of Commodities
58 markets, from gold to lithium to lean hogs. What each commodity is, who supplies it, how it trades, and what moves the price. Updated for the world of 2026, by the author of Oil 101.
Tap a group to highlight it. Tap any tile to open its fact sheet.
Seven Families of Markets
Precious Metals
Gold, silver, and the platinum group: stores of value, jewellery, and industrial catalysts.
4 commoditiesRead the group primer
Base Metals & Bulks
The LME complex plus iron ore: the metals that build, wire, and galvanize the world.
7 commoditiesRead the group primer
Battery & Critical Materials
Lithium, cobalt, uranium, rare earths: the materials of electrification and energy security.
4 commoditiesRead the group primer
Oil & Refined Products
Crude benchmarks and the products refined from them: the deepest commodity market on earth.
9 commoditiesRead the group primer
Gas, Power, Coal & Carbon
Natural gas hubs, LNG, electricity, thermal coal, and emissions allowances.
6 commoditiesRead the group primer
Petrochemicals & NGLs
Natural gas liquids, olefins, aromatics, and polymers: from wellhead to plastic.
6 commoditiesRead the group primer
Agriculture
Grains, oilseeds, softs, and livestock: the oldest futures markets still setting the table.
15 commoditiesRead the group primer
Fertilizer
Nitrogen, phosphate, and potash: the nutrients behind every harvest, priced off natural gas, sulphur, and a few export hubs.
4 commoditiesRead the group primer
Freight & Shipping
Dry bulk and wet (tanker) freight: the cost of moving commodities by sea, and a real-time pulse of global trade.
3 commoditiesRead the group primer
Reference
Conversion factors and a glossary of the terms traders actually use.
Go deeper
Commodities 101 is the wide-angle view. For the full book-length treatment of the two biggest commodity markets, read the companion volumes. Both are free.