SummerHaven Index Management Enters Into Two License Agreements with Fund Sponsor United States Commodity Funds

STAMFORD, Conn., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- SummerHaven Index Management, LLC, announces that it has entered into an agreement to license the SummerHaven Dynamic Metals Index (SDMI), and the SummerHaven Dynamic Agriculture Index (SDAI), to United States Commodity Funds, LLC, the operator of a family of commodity-based exchange traded investment funds that track investments in oil, natural gas, and other physical commodities.

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The SDMI and the SDAI employ an innovative approach to commodity investing through use of fundamental signals about underlying physical markets to create a dynamic benchmark for commodity futures investors. Unlike many traditional commodity benchmarks, the weightings of the various commodities in the SDMI and the SDAI are adjusted on a monthly basis to reflect current market conditions.

SummerHaven developed the SDMI and SDAI, and they follow last year's launch of  the SummerHaven Dynamic Commodity Index (SDCI). The SDCI is calculated and published by Bloomberg and is the investment benchmark for the United States Commodity Index Fund (NYSE Arca ticker "USCI"), an exchange traded commodity fund.

Professor K. Geert Rouwenhorst of the Yale School of Management and Partner at SummerHaven commented, "Investors continue to look for more intelligent ways to gain exposure to commodities. These new sector indexes provide a disciplined approach towards incorporating fundamental signals into sector index construction. Their design strikes a balance between diversified sector exposure and dynamic commodities management. Our index approach includes research ideas from two academic studies, Facts and Fantasies about Commodity Futures and the Fundamentals of Commodities Futures Returns, to create practical and implementable investment benchmarks for investors."

John T. Hyland, CFA, the Chief Investment Officer of United States Commodity Funds, commented, "USCF has been interested in expanding beyond single-commodity investment vehicles into diversified commodity pools, and we look to SummerHaven for development of advanced "third generation" commodity index benchmarks for our funds. Following the recent successful launch of the United States Commodity Index Fund, which benchmarks to SummerHaven's SDCI index, we are excited to license these two new sector indexes providing a dynamic index approach to metals and agriculture futures markets."

Kurt J. Nelson, Partner at SummerHaven, states, "The first commodity indexes from the 1990's were designed primarily to measure price movements in commodities with fixed weights emphasizing global production, however they were not designed to be optimal from the standpoint of investors. SummerHaven's indexes are designed with the investor in mind from the start and should be useful as asset allocation benchmarks. The enthusiastic reception of the marketplace to the SDCI leads us to believe that the SDMI and SDAI will also provide valuable information to investors and their advisors."

About SummerHaven Index Management

Headquartered in Stamford, CT, SummerHaven Index Management is focused on creating innovative commodity indices. The firm is led by a seasoned management team with over 50 years of collective financial markets experience with commodity futures, capital markets, investment management, and exchange traded products. The first commodity index created by SummerHaven, the SummerHaven Dynamic Commodity Index, is published daily by Bloomberg under the ticker SDCITR.

Disclosure

Bloomberg is a trademark of Bloomberg L.P.

United States Commodity Funds and United States Commodity Index Fund are trademarks of United States Commodity Funds LLC.

SOURCE SummerHaven Index Management, LLC