CMDY vs ISTM

CMDYBiShares Bloomberg Roll Select Commodity Strategy ETF

ISTMCiShares Strategic Metals ETF

In short

CMDY Commodities without the worst of the futures math. CMDY tracks the Roll Select version of the Bloomberg commodity index, where contract choice is written into the rules to ease rolling costs, and charges 0.29% to do it.

ISTM Born in 2023 as a clean-energy metals fund, re-badged in 2026 around re-industrialization: one long-only basket of metal futures, now aimed at AI buildouts, grids and defense. 0.47% net of a waiver through February 29, 2028.

Stated mandate

CMDY The fund seeks to track an index representing a broad range of commodity exposures, using enhanced roll selection on a total-return basis.

ISTM The Fund seeks to track a commodities futures index providing strategic exposure to metals used in structural themes including AI infrastructure, manufacturing, energy production and distribution, and national security.

Why people hold it

• CMDY The name is the strategy. Enhanced roll selection is baked into the index it tracks, so which futures contract to hold is a rule, not an afterthought.
• 0.29% a year sits in the low-fee tier of broad commodity funds, next to BCI, CERY and BCD, and well under what the category typically charges.
• One ticker, a broad basket of roughly 60 futures positions, run on a total-return basis that counts collateral income alongside commodity price moves.
• Live since 2018 under the iShares roof, and one of the stronger implementations in its broad-basket commodity peer group.

• ISTM Fee lands below the category median: 0.47% net of a waiver through February 29, 2028, against a 0.49% gross rate.
• Category rivals buy the whole commodity shelf (energy, grains, livestock). This one holds a long-only basket of exchange-traded metal futures and nothing else.sec.gov
• Metals exposure runs through futures in a wholly owned Cayman subsidiary, capped at 25% of fund assets to stay inside Subchapter M's rules for fund-level tax treatment.ishares.comsec.gov

Worth knowing

• CMDY Moderately traded rather than a volume monster. Spreads can run wider than the mega-cap index funds, which shows up most on large or hurried orders.
• It is structured as a commodity pool, not a plain stock fund, so the tax paperwork and reporting work differently. Check the details before filing season.
• Distributions land annually or semiannually, not monthly, and the roll rule addresses futures mechanics only. Commodity prices still swing hard on their own.

• ISTM Cheaper broad-basket options sit in the same category: BCI at 0.26% and COMB at 0.25%, neither waiver-dependent, for diversified commodity exposure instead of metals only.
• Small and lightly traded, so bid-ask spreads can run wider than in the category's biggest funds.
• It owns futures, not metal, and the index behind it changed in 2026, so the record since the 2023 launch reflects a different basket for much of that stretch.sec.gov

Full CMDY profile⁠

Full ISTM profile⁠