Commodity trading  has enjoyed an upward trend over the past five years. While all industries go through multiyear cycles of peaks and troughs, the industry’s prospects look excellent for the years ahead. Commodities are typically sorted into four broad categories: metal, energy, livestock and meat, and agricultural products.For investors, commodities can be an important way to diversify their portfolios beyond traditional securities. Commodities are considered risky investments because the supply and demand of these products are affected by events that are difficult to predict, such as weather, epidemics, and natural and human-made disasters.There are many ways to invest in commodities, including futures contracts, options, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) commodity trading is on the cusp of the next normal. The energy transition now under way is an economic and physical transformation that cuts across and integrates the various global food, energy, and materials systems. From a commodity trading standpoint, this transformation will increase structural volatility, disrupt trade flows to open new arbitrages, redefine what it means to be a commodity, and fundamentally alter commercial relationships.Commodity traders need excellent peripheral vision to understand the interconnected nature of the global economy. Conditions in commodity markets can change rapidly and traders have to remain alert to many micro and macro factors. Economic cycles, geopolitical developments and technical factors all have an impact.