Trading commodities has been popular for many years, as investors can use a number of different resources to gain access to their favorite commodity investments. But it was only a more recent development that commodities earned their keep in a long-term portfolio. Now, a small, but important, allocation to commodities is a necessity of any well diversified portfolio, as these investments offer a number of advantages such as hedging against inflation and maintaining low correlation levels to traditional asset classes [see also Commodity Investing: Physical vs. Futures].