Natural Resources Mutual Funds & ETF List: Investments, Trading, Risks, Example & Introduction

In this article, we will list some of the commonly available and heavily traded Natural Resources Mutual Funds. We will also see if there are any cheap and low cost Natuaral resources Mutual Funds available or not. Due to the sudden crisis in the oil and gas markets, there is an outburst of funds in the Alternative Energy Fund segment. There is also a boost in the so called Natural Resources fund investments, which form another similar category along with Alternative Energy Funds and Green Funds.

We had covered in the following article about the Investments, Risks Introduction and examples of Natural Resources Mutual Funds

Are there any examples of Natural Resources Mutual funds available for investments?
Yes. Dreyfus Premier Natural Leaders (DNLAX), Franklin Natural Resources (FRNRX), Merrill Lynch/BlackRock Natural Resources (MDGRX), Morgan Stanley Natural Resource Dev (NREAX), Oppenheimer Real Asset (QRAAX), Pimco Commodity Real Return Fund (PCRAX) and Putnam Global Natural Resources (EBERX) are a few of the funds which are operating in the natural resources segment. But they may come heavy with the charges.

Are there any low cost Natural Resources Mutual funds available for investments?
An investor can opt for buying natural resource and commodity-oriented ETF or exchange-traded funds. These ETFs charge much lower fees than their managed fund counterparts and offer more diversity. Major Natural Resources ETF (Exchange Traded Funds) are:

DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) Major Focus on - Futures contracts to track the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity index. Weightings are: crude oil (35%), heating oil (20%), gold (10%), aluminum (12.5%), corn (11.25%) and wheat (11.25%).

Energy Select Sector SPDR XLE Major Focus on - Oil company stocks.

iShares Dow Jones US Basic Materials IYM Major Focus on - Chemicals, base metals, mining forestry company stocks. (Not all commodities).

iShares Goldman Sachs Natural Resources IGE Major Focus on - Oil, oil services, base metals and mining company stocks.

iShares COMEX Gold Trust IAU Major Focus on - Gold.

iShares Dow Jones US Energy FundIYE Major Focus on - Oil company stocks.

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Exploration & Production FundIEO Major Focus on - Oil exploration and oil company stocks.

iShares Dow Jones U.S. Oil Equipment & Services FundIEZ Major Focus on - Oil service company stocks.

iShares S&P Global Energy Sector IXCMajor Focus on - U.S. and foreign oil company stocks.

iShares MSCI Australia Index EWAMajor Focus on - Includes mining and natural resources company stocks.

Another option could be to buy stocks of natural resource and commodity companies directly. Examples of such companies inclide Alcoa (AA), Baker Hughes (BHI), Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Weyerhaeuser (WY). Here you will have to pay the standard brokerage charges for stock trading which may be less than the Natural Resources Mutual funds charges