COMB vs FTGC

COMBBGraniteShares Bloomberg Commodity Broad Strategy No K-1 ETF

FTGCCFirst Trust Global Tactical Commodity Strategy Fund

In short

COMB The cheapest ticket in the K-1-free commodity aisle: 0.25% for a broad basket of energy, metals, grain and livestock futures, wrapped so your tax packet is a Form 1099 instead of a Schedule K-1.

FTGC The broad-commodity fund that picks its own weights. Running since 2013, it sizes futures by volatility instead of copying a production-weighted index, and holds them through a Cayman subsidiary so tax time brings a 1099, not a K-1.

Stated mandate

COMB The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation mainly through exposure to commodity futures markets.

FTGC The Fund seeks total returns through commodity exposure while aiming for a relatively stable risk profile.

Why people hold it

• COMB At 0.25%, the lowest fee among the category's top-scoring broad commodity funds (BCI 0.26%, CERY 0.28%, CMDY 0.29%, BCD 0.30%) and below the category median.
• Gains its futures exposure through a wholly owned Cayman subsidiary, so the fund is designed to be taxed like a conventional fund and issue a 1099, not a K-1.sec.gov
• Benchmarked to the Bloomberg Commodity Index: about 30 positions across energy, metals, agriculture and livestock, with index rules capping any commodity group at 33%.bbhub.io
• Live since 2017, long enough to have run through a full commodity boom and bust, and it sits in the top quartile of its peer group.

• FTGC Genuinely active: weightings across roughly 40 commodity positions are rebalanced in an attempt to stabilize risk levels, not fixed by the production-and-liquidity math behind traditional index baskets.sec.gov
• Futures exposure sits inside a wholly-owned Cayman subsidiary so the fund can stay within 1940 Act tax limits, which means ordinary fund reporting on a 1099 rather than a partnership K-1.sec.gov
• One of the longer-tenured actively managed commodity ETFs, live since 2013, now a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively.
• Distributions come quarterly, and the fund measures itself against the Bloomberg Commodity Index, so the manager's calls can be judged against the standard broad basket.

Worth knowing

• COMB Thinly traded next to the category's household names, so spreads can widen. Matters most on bigger orders.
• Returns ride the futures curve, not spot prices. Rolling contracts forward can add to or subtract from the move in a commodity's headline price.graniteshares.com
• Actively managed rather than a strict index clone, with Treasury bills as collateral and cash paid out annually or semiannually, not monthly.graniteshares.com

• FTGC Active judgment carries an active price: 0.98% a year against a 0.72% median for broad commodity futures funds, with index-tracking rivals like BCI (0.26%) and CMDY (0.29%) far cheaper.
• Risk-based weighting means the sector mix can sit well away from a production-weighted benchmark, so results can diverge from the standard commodity index in either direction.sec.gov
• The prospectus is blunt that commodity-linked derivatives may be considered speculative and can fluctuate widely on macro and commodity-specific shocks. A stable risk profile is the aim, not a promise.sec.gov

Full COMB profile⁠

Full FTGC profile⁠