If you were a hard asset investor last year, you'd have been better off owning equity interests in producers and processors rather than the commodities themselves. In 2009, for example, the Market Vectors RVE Hard Assets Producers ETF (NYSE Arca: HAP)—an index-based portfolio comprising more than 300 global firms' stocks in the energy, agriculture, metals and forest products sectors—racked up a 41.5 percent gain, grossly outperforming the GreenHaven Continuous Commodity Index Fund (NYSE Arca: GCC). GCC, which tracks an equal-weighted index of 17 U.S.-traded commodity futures, gained 20.1 percent in 2009.

Real-time Monetary Inflation (last 12 months): 2.3%

Earlier this week ("Add Soft Wheat To Your Hard Asset List"), we noted bottoming action and bullish seasonality in Chicago wheat futures bolstering the price of the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Grains Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSE Arca: JJG).

Every thing has its season, according to the lyrics in the Byrds' famous tune, "Turn, Turn, Turn." It's doubtful the folk rock band thought their trademark song would ever become an anthem for investment cyclicality, but it is appropriate background music for today's market.

• Small speculators as 'afterthoughts'
• Hedgers vs. speculators in the 2007-08 oil run-up
• When to listen to retail traders

Investors, rather than traders, have had the advantage in the commodities markets this year. Largely, that's because stockholders can outlast highly leveraged futures traders while waiting for a trend to develop. Of course, you can always use an exchange-traded fund (ETF) as a proxy for futures to insulate yourself from margin calls.

Ah, those were the days, weren't they?

Remember last year's heady rise in commodity prices? Do you also recall the cacophony of catcalls that accompanied it? Citizens and industry participants alike wanted to put so-called "index speculators" to the lash for heedlessly snatching up futures contracts and running up prices. At least, that was the story being told to Congress (see "Congress Blames Index Speculators").