The authors propose a new benchmark to evaluate forecasts of averaged series, such as the monthly real price of oil. The new benchmark is based on the last high-frequency observation of the underlying series and allows forecasters to test for predictability. The authors also warn that forecast comparisons with the conventional benchmark can introduce spurious predictability. In an application to the real price of crude oil, the authors find that the new benchmark overturns the existing evidence for oil-price predictability: the real price of oil is more difficult to predict and behaves more similar to the prices of financial assets than implied by the academic literature. The authors’ results also highlight that incorporating information from high-frequency observations into forecasting models can yield large gains in forecast-accuracy. Such gains are likely to occur in any setting where forecasters work with averaged data and the underlying series are very persistent.

Based on an analysis of 27 commodities during 1970-2019, this article finds that transitory and permanent shocks contributed almost equally to commodity price variations, although with wide heterogeneity. Permanent shocks accounted for two-thirds of the variability in annual agricultural commodity prices but less than half of the variability in base metals prices. For energy prices, permanent shocks have trended upward, for agricultural prices, downwards, and for metals prices, flat. The volatility triggered in April-to-October 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic appears to constitute a series of largely transitory shocks for commodity prices.

This article provides a brief update on the many events and initiatives that have taken place during the last six months, including (a) new sponsorship for the GCARD; (b) the addition of a new Industry Advisory Council member; (c) the appointment of two new GCARD Editorial Advisory Board members; (d) the latest JPMCC collegiate courses; (e) the upcoming Professional Education courses that are being offered jointly with the CU Denver Global Energy Management program; and (f) the scheduling of the August 2021 international commodities symposium. The JPMCC’s Executive Director is Dr. Thomas Brady, Ph.D.