COMB vs NBCM

COMBAGraniteShares Bloomberg Commodity Broad Strategy No K-1 ETF

NBCMCNeuberger Berman Commodity Strategy ETF

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.

NBCM Most broad commodity funds just track an index and rebalance on schedule. NBCM runs quantitative models to shift weights across commodity sectors, backed by a fixed-income collateral sleeve. Active management in a mostly passive aisle.

Stated mandate

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

NBCM The Fund seeks commodity exposure through commodity-linked derivatives and fixed-income instruments. It uses quantitative models to identify opportunities and set portfolio weights across multiple commodity sectors.

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.

• NBCM Actively managed, not index-tethered: quantitative models set the weights across commodity sectors instead of locking in a benchmark's fixed recipe.
• Two working parts: commodity-linked derivatives for the exposure, fixed-income instruments backing them, so the collateral behind the futures isn't sitting idle.
• Spread across multiple commodity sectors, energy to metals to ags, rather than riding one barrel or one bar of gold.
• Sits in the upper half of the broad commodity futures group on our review, with portfolio construction the strongest part of the build.

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

• NBCM At 0.76% a year, it costs more than the index workhorses it competes with: BCI runs 0.26%, CMDY 0.29%. That gap is what the quant model has to cover.
• Structured as a commodity pool, so the tax paperwork and regulatory treatment differ from a plain stock ETF. Worth a look before it hits your return.
• Launched in 2022 and only moderately traded, so the live record is short and spreads can run wider than at the category's giants. Limit orders help.

Full COMB profile⁠

Full NBCM profile⁠