By Morgan Downey · Wooden Table Press · The Modern Commodity Handbook
Commodities 101
The periodic table of commodities. What each market is, who supplies it, how it trades and what moves the price, across 130 markets in 10 families. Updated for the world of 2026, by the author of Oil 101.
A guided path through the handbook, or jump to any stop
Searches every market, family and theme from any page, including the products tucked inside combined sheets. Try MSG, peanut, proppant or MRI.
Tap a group to highlight it. Tap any tile to open its fact sheet.
The Biggest Markets
Two different ways to rank a commodity: how much money changes hands trading it each day, and how much the world produces of it each year. They are not the same list. Every row links to the market.
Most Actively Traded
Approximate daily traded value, futures plus OTC
- 1Crude oilroughly $300 to $450bn / day
- 2Goldroughly $360bn / day
- 3Refined productsroughly $40 to $70bn / day
- 4Natural gasroughly $30 to $60bn / day
- 5Copperroughly $30 to $60bn / day
- 6Iron oreroughly $20 to $40bn / day
- 7Silverroughly $15 to $30bn / day
- 8Soybeansroughly $10 to $20bn / day
- 9Cornroughly $8 to $15bn / day
- 10Wheatroughly $5 to $10bn / day
- 11Aluminiumroughly $5 to $10bn / day
- 12Sugarroughly $2 to $5bn / day
- 13Coffeeroughly $1 to $3bn / day
- 14Cottonroughly $1 to $2bn / day
- 15Cocoaroughly $1 to $2bn / day
Largest by Annual Production Value
Approximate global output times price, per year
- 1Crude oilroughly $2.0 to $2.5tn / yr
- 2Coalroughly $600 to $900bn / yr
- 3Natural gasroughly $500 to $800bn / yr
- 4Milkroughly $500 to $600bn / yr
- 5Beefroughly $400 to $500bn / yr
- 6Goldroughly $280 to $350bn / yr
- 7Iron oreroughly $250 to $350bn / yr
- 8Porkroughly $280 to $320bn / yr
- 9Riceroughly $250 to $300bn / yr
- 10Cornroughly $240 to $260bn / yr
- 11Copperroughly $220 to $280bn / yr
- 12Wheatroughly $180 to $220bn / yr
- 13Soybeansroughly $150 to $200bn / yr
- 14Aluminiumroughly $130 to $160bn / yr
- 15Sugarroughly $100 to $130bn / yr
Figures are order-of-magnitude estimates for ranking, not precise quotes. Traded value mirrors the Biggest Markets theme; production value is global output times price.
The 10 Families of Markets
Precious Metals
Gold, silver, and the platinum group: stores of value, jewellery, and industrial catalysts.
6 commoditiesRead the group primer
Base Metals, Iron & Steel
The LME complex, iron ore, and steel: the metals that build, wire, and galvanize the world.
10 commoditiesRead the group primer
Battery & Critical Materials
Lithium, cobalt, uranium, rare earths: the materials of electrification and energy security.
7 commoditiesRead the group primer
Oil & Refined Products
Crude benchmarks and the products refined from them: the deepest commodity market on earth.
10 commoditiesRead the group primer
Gas, Power & Coal
Natural gas hubs, LNG, electricity, and thermal coal: the molecules and electrons that power the world.
8 commoditiesRead the group primer
Petrochemicals & NGLs
Natural gas liquids, olefins, aromatics, and polymers: from wellhead to plastic.
16 commoditiesRead the group primer
Agriculture
Grains, oilseeds, softs, and livestock: the oldest futures markets still setting the table.
57 commoditiesRead the group primer
Fertilizer
Nitrogen, phosphate, and potash: the nutrients behind every harvest, priced off natural gas, sulphur, and a few export hubs.
5 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.
4 commoditiesRead the group primer
Environmental Markets
Carbon allowances and the credit markets around them: emissions caps, biofuel and low-carbon-fuel credits, renewable certificates, and voluntary offsets.
7 commoditiesRead the group primer
Looking for the basics? 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 three biggest energy markets, read the companion volumes. All are free.
Oil 101
The bestselling oil market primer, as an interactive 2nd edition: 26 chapters, audiobook, live market data, and a certificate.
NatGas 101
The complete guide to North American natural gas: 21 chapters from wellhead to LNG export, with audiobook and certificate.
Power 101
Electricity markets in 29 chapters: the only major commodity that cannot be stored, and the market designs built around that fact.
Free for everyone
Every fact sheet, every family primer, every essay and the reference tables. No payment, no paywall, no account.
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