K. Geert Rouwenhorst and Kurt Nelson of SummerHaven Index Management, LLC explain how to go beyond passive in commodities exposure.

After Tuesday's losses in the U.S. crude oil market, bullish sentiment was bolstered by a key industry report about the supply of Texas Tea. Overnight trade in WTI crude was buoyed by the American Petroleum Institute's estimates that indicated crude inventories falling much more than analysts' expectations.

Sometimes readers wonder why so much attention is paid to the weekly oil inventory numbers published by the U.S. Energy Department's statistical service. Truth be told, a lot of trader breath is held awaiting each Wednesday morning release by the Energy Information Administration.

No doubt, Friday was a bad day to be an oil bull. Nearby NYMEX crude futures tumbled $2.27 a barrel, or 2.7 percent, cramming a week's worth of losses into a single day. Oil prices have been skidding since April 6, so traders were eager to jump on the selling train when the Goldman Sachs news hit the wires.

Real-time Monetary Inflation (last 12 months): -0.5%

Crude oil prices are headed up. But you already knew that, right? In the first quarter of 2010, front-month NYMEX crude prices have risen 5.6 percent. That doesn't sound like a very large gain until you realize that the gain's been accompanied by a 29 percent shrinkage in contango.

A record short position has been amassed by commercial accounts in the gasoline market. In sum, a record high 132,416 NYMEX futures and option equivalents are held short by producers, users, merchants and processors.

When the skies cleared on Sunday, many backyard grills in our cabin-fevered neighborhood were fired up for the first time this year. The perfume of sizzling beef and pork that wafted over our street got me thinking about this spring's prospects for meat.

• Going long during contango
• The top performers
• Regulatory fire fizzles

• Why do returns between ETFs, ETNs and trusts differ?
• Rankings of 12 different commodities
• What a difference contango makes

• How endowments approach gold
• Is gold or GSCI a better diversifier?
• Why contango matters