CORN vs TAGS

CORNCTeucrium Corn Fund

TAGSCTeucrium Agricultural Fund

In short

CORN The original US corn ETF, running since 2010. Rather than riding the front-month contract, it spreads across three CBOT corn futures (second, third, and the following December) to blunt monthly roll churn.

TAGS One ticket, four crops: TAGS holds Teucrium's corn, wheat, soybean and sugar funds at roughly a quarter each. Pure farm-field exposure, no energy or metals along for the ride, and the thinnest headline fee in the ag-futures group.

Stated mandate

CORN The Fund seeks to give investors price exposure to corn for future delivery by tracking the daily movement of its benchmark. It normally invests in corn futures contracts and cash equivalents.

TAGS The Fund seeks daily results reflecting the combined performance of four agricultural commodity pools covering corn, wheat, soybeans and sugar. It invests equally in those underlying funds and targets approximately 25% in each.

Why people hold it

• CORN The ladder is the whole idea: 35% second-to-expire, 30% third-to-expire, 35% the following December contract, so it is never glued to the front month.sec.gov
• At 0.61% it undercuts the median fee in its agriculture-futures peer group, and comes in below DBA (0.90%) and PDBA (0.75%).
• Single-crop exposure with no dilution: corn futures and cash equivalents, nothing else, operating continuously since June 2010.sec.gov

• TAGS Headline fee of 0.17% sits far below the 0.75% typical of ag-futures funds.
• Targets about 25% each in corn, wheat, soybeans and sugar, so no single crop runs the show.
• Trading since 2012 and one of the stronger builds in the agricultural futures group.

Worth knowing

• CORN One crop, one weather map. Drought, planting surprises and export policy land on the whole fund at once, with no basket of other commodities to cushion the move.
• You own corn futures, not corn in a silo. The three-contract ladder softens roll costs but does not remove them, so results can drift from spot corn.sec.gov
• It is structured as a commodity pool rather than a standard stock-ETF wrapper, so the tax and reporting mechanics work differently.teucrium.com

• TAGS It is a fund of funds: you also carry the costs of the four Teucrium funds it holds (sugar 0.54%, corn 0.61%), so all-in cost runs above the headline fee.
• A small, thinly traded fund, so spreads can widen and large orders can move the price.
• Built as a commodity pool rather than a standard stock ETF, with no regular distributions; tax paperwork differs, and rival PDBA is designed to skip the K-1.

Full CORN profile⁠

Full TAGS profile⁠