United States Copper Index Fund

United States Copper Index Fund (CPER) is a commodity-pool exchange-traded fund launched in November 2011 by USCF Investments, designed to give investors exposure to copper prices through a portfolio of exchange-traded futures contracts rather than copper-mining equities. It is structured as a commodity pool, meaning investors receive a Schedule K-1 at tax time and pay a blended tax rate on gains regardless of holding period.

What does United States Copper Index Fund track? 

CPER seeks to reflect the daily percentage changes of the SummerHaven Copper Index Total Return (SCI), an index designed and maintained by SummerHaven Index Management that is built from one to three copper futures contracts traded on the COMEX division of CME Group. The index uses a rules-based, quantitative methodology to select which contracts to hold each month based on observable price signals along the futures curve.

What does United States Copper Index Fund hold?

Because CPER invests in futures contracts rather than equities, it does not hold company-level positions; its exposure sits entirely within copper as a commodity, with collateral assets held in US Treasury bills, cash, and money-market instruments. This structure differentiates it from equity-based copper-miner funds, since CPER's value moves directly with the price of copper futures rather than with the equity valuations of mining companies.

United States Copper Index Fund Investment strategy

CPER's strategy is designed to capture backwardation and minimise erosion from contango in the copper futures curve. Each month, on a designated selection date, the index assesses whether the futures curve is in backwardation or contango: in backwardation it holds the front-month investable contract, and in contango it equally weights the first three eligible contracts. Rebalancing is staged over several business days, replacing a portion of prior positions daily, with the goal of keeping the fund's daily percentage NAV changes within a defined tolerance of the underlying index's daily changes.