The year has drawn to a close, and while the powers that be are still hard at work tallying up the 2011 results for various asset classes, the year has already issued its verdict on commodity investment options. We’ve posted throughout the year on the underperformance of long-only commodity ETFs- especially when you have the opportunity to invest in futures instead and see better results. Futures trading is complicated, presents a risk of loss, and isn’t for everyone- especially since past market performance doesn’t necessarily indicate future results- but given the numbers, we’re left scratching our heads. We’ve yet to receive a good answer to the question: why invest in an ETF when you can just roll December contracts annually?

Read ’em and weep…