The influence of uncertainty on commodity futures returns and trading behaviour

We utilise measures of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and geopolitical risk (GPR), as well as commitments of traders (COTs), to investigate the influence of uncertainty on commodity markets. We find that uncertainty has a significant influence on returns, but the direction of the response is due to whether uncertainty emanates from demand shocks (EPU) or supply shocks (GPR). Uncertainty is also positively related to volatility and trading volume. Importantly, we also find that the net positions of both commercial and non-commercial traders are influenced by uncertainty levels. Examination of high uncertainty and recessionary periods indicates that our results are state dependent.