Market Capitalization

Market capitalization or “Market cap” refers to the total market value of all the publicly traded shares of that company.  Basically you take the number of shares available for a company, multiply by the stock price and that gives you the market capitalization.  For example if a company has 5,000 outstanding shares that are worth $40 each – the total value of the shares of $200,000 which is also the market capitalization.

It’s important to note that market capitalization doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the actual value of the company assets – but rather the value of ownership which includes all the assets of the company plus any future expectations of profits.

It’s possible to have a company that doesn’t own any assets but has a great idea for making money – investors might value this company highly.  Google is a good example of a company that has a market cap far higher than its assets because its investors are assuming the company will be able to increase its profits at a rapid pace.

Over $5 billion capitalization. Companies are usually classifieds either large cap, medium cap, small cap, or micro cap, depending on their market capitalization, but the dividing lines are somewhat arbitrary. As a general guideline, the market capitalization is $5 billion or more for large caps, $1 billion to $5 billion for medium caps, $250 million to $1 billion for small caps, and less than $250 million for micro caps. When calculating the market caps of foreign companies who have issued ADRs in the US, only the outstanding ADR shares are considered, not the shares issued by that company in other countries.

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index (“TR/J CRB Index")

For more than 50 years, the world-renowned CRB Index has served as the most widely recognized measure of global commodities markets. This leading commodity futures benchmark is designed to provide timely and accurate representation of a long-only, broadly diversified investment in commodities through a transparent and disciplined calculation methodology.

The history of the CRB Index dates back to 1957, when the Commodity Research Bureau constructed an index comprised of 28 commodities that made its inaugural appearance in the 1958 CRB Commodity Year Book.

Since then, as commodity markets have evolved, the CRB Index has undergone periodic updates to remain a leading benchmark for the performance of commodities as an asset class.

The index is comprised of 19 commodities:  Aluminum, Cocoa, Coffee, Copper, Corn, Cotton, Crude Oil, Gold, Heating Oil, Lean Hogs, Live Cattle, Natural Gas, Nickel, Orange Juice, Silver, Soybeans, Sugar, Unleaded Gas and Wheat.

The TR/J CRB Index and the CRB-EQ Index and related equity indices are published real time and widely disseminated to subscribers including traders, analysts, consultants and numerous media outlets.

They are available for licensing through the Thomson Reuters Indices license team.

Financial products issued under license of the CRB-EQ Index and related equity indices  include the Jefferies | TR/J CRB Global Commodity Equity Index Fund (NYSE: CRBQ), an ETF which seeks investment results that replicate as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB In-The-Ground Global Commodity Equity Index. Other ETF licensees of related indices include:

• Jefferies | TR/J CRB Global Industrial Metals Equity Index Fund
• Jefferies | TR/J CRB Global Agriculture Equity Index Fund
• Jefferies | TR/J CRB Wildcatters Exploration & Production Equity ETF

WEIGHTING: The 10th revision (2005) included a weighting change from equal weighted components to a 4-tiered grouping system designed to reflect the significance of each commodity

            Energy: 39%

           Agriculture: 41%

           Precious Metals: 7%

           Base/Industrial Metals: 13%

The Reuters-CRB Index (CCI) was first calculated by Commodity Research Bureau, Inc. in 1957 and made its inaugural appearance in the 1958 CRB Commodity Year Book.
The Index was originally comprised of 28 commodities, 26 of which were traded on exchanges in the U.S. and Canada, and two cash markets. It included barley and flaxseed from the Winnipeg exchange; cocoa, coffee "B", copper, cotton, cottonseed oil, grease wool, hides, lead, potatoes, rubber, sugar #4, sugar #6, wool tops and zinc from New York exchanges; and corn, eggs, lard, oats, onions, rye, soybeans, soybean meal, soybean oil and wheat from Chicago exchanges. In addition to those 26 markets, the Index also included the spot New Orleans cotton and Minneapolis wheat markets which were added to balance some commodities repeated in the Index as by-products of other commodities.
The original base period was 1947-49, the same as the Bureau of Labor Statistics Spot Market Index.¹This was purposely done to facilitate easy comparison of both spot and futures indexes.
Like the Bureau of Labor Statistics spot index, the Reuters-CRB Index (CCI) is calculated to produce an unweighted geometric mean of the individual commodity price relatives. In other words, a ratio of the current price to the base year average price.
The Reuters-CRB Index (CCI) was originally designed to provide dynamic representation of broad trends in overall commodity prices. In order to ensure that it continued to fulfill that role, its components and formula have been periodically adjusted to reflect changes in market structure and activity.
In the original calculation, all future deliveries up to a year ahead were averaged to calculate the current price. In 1987, the calculation was changed to only include deliveries nine months forward. In 1989, all non-cycle months were excluded from the calculation.
The 1995 revision lowers the number of forward deliveries included to those within six months of the current date, up to a maximum of five delivery months per commodity. However, a minimum of two delivery months must be used to calculate the current price, even if the second contract is outside of the six month window.
There has also been a continuous adjustment of the individual components used in calculating the Index since the original 28 were chosen in 1957. All of these changes have been part of the continuing effort of Reuters (CRB) to keep the Reuters-CRB Index (CCI) "current," and to ensure that its value provides accurate representation of broad commodity price trends.