A five-year rally in prices and several multi-billion dollar commitments by leading pension funds have drawn the attention of institutional investors to commodities. Still in its infancy, commodity investment has enormous growth potential and offers considerable rewards to money managers who understand its unique characteristics, benefits and challenges.

More than $200bn has flowed into commodity markets over the past five years, fuelling the rapid growth of investable indices and leading to a proliferation of new investment opportunities. Among the options for investors seeking exposure to commodities are: buying into natural resource companies, implementing a commodity futures programme, investing in long-only futures indices and their derivatives or via managed accounts, commodity pools, mutual funds, hedge funds and funds of funds.

Financial investment in consumable and transformable assets is a very recent phenomenon and one of modest magnitude relative to the size of the underlying commodity markets or in comparison with other alternative classes and strategies. However, this emerging asset class should not be overlooked: the long-term economic fundamentals point towards higher commodity prices and the historical record makes a clear case for including natural resources in portfolios. Over nearly half a century, commodity futures have returned over 10% annually while providing a solid hedge against inflation and performing strongly in bear equity and bond markets.

Commodities are not capital assets; therefore, they cannot be priced with traditional financial models or evaluated through discounting approaches. Investment managers need to recognise the specificities of natural resources and understand their short and long term performance drivers to adapt their asset and risk management processes to commodities. Advisers have a key role to play in helping investors define their optimal commodity allocation, choose a suitable benchmark, select appropriate vehicles from an expanding set of products, and conduct due diligence.

Designed and delivered by two leading experts in the theory and practice of commodities trading and alternative investment, this intensive seminar equips participants with a comprehensive overview of natural resources markets, a thorough understanding of the importance of commodities as an asset class, and the state-of-the art techniques for designing futures programmes and implementing institutional commodity investments.

Presented in a highly accessible manner and drawing from the latest results of alternative investment research, the Till and Lhabitant seminar was targetted at fund managers, investment officers and administrators working for institutional investors and family offices, and to consultants and key account representatives advising high net worth individuals and institutions on commodity investments.

Hilary Till is the co-founder of Premia Capital Management, LLC, a principal of Premia Risk Consultancy, Inc., and a research associate with the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre. She also sits on the advisory board of the Tellus Natural Resources Fund, a fund of hedge funds. Ms. Till has over 15 years of experience in the commodity derivatives markets. Established in 1998, Chicago-based Premia Capital Management is a proprietary trading firm with a natural resources focus which specialises in using statistical techniques to detect pockets of predictability in derivatives markets. Premia Risk Consultancy advises investment firms on derivatives strategies and risk management policy. Before co-founding Premia Capital, Ms. Till headed derivatives strategies at Putnam Investments and also served as the company's commodity portfolio manager for institutional clients. Prior to joining Putnam, Ms. Till was with Harvard Management Company where she set up the commodity investment programme of the university's endowment. Ms. Till has written articles on commodities, risk management, and hedge funds in refereed academic and practitioner journals. She serves on the examination committees of professional designations in alternative investment and risk management. Ms. Till has authored many articles on commodities, derivatives and risk management in industry publications and contributed to ten books in the last four years. Ms. Till has a BA in statistics from the University of Chicago and an MSc in statistics from the London School of Economics.

François-Serge Lhabitant is Associate Professor of Finance at EDHEC Business School, Professor of Finance at the University of Lausanne and Chief Investment Officer at Kedge Capital. Professor Lhabitant is responsible for the investment management of the Kedge Capital Funds and investment mandates operated by the Kedge Group. Before joining Kedge, he was a senior executive at UBP where he was in charge of the quantitative analysis and the management of dedicated hedge fund portfolios. Previously, Professor Lhabitant was a director at UBS Private Banking Division and Global Asset Management where he developed quantitative models for hedge fund analysis and performance measurement. At EDHEC Business School, Professor Lhabitant teaches the Hedge Funds, Commodities and Managed Futures course in the MSc in Risk and Asset Management programme and contributes to the work of the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre. His research has been published in refereed academic and practitioner journals. He is a Member of the Scientific Committee of the AMF, the French financial markets' regulatory body. Professor Lhabitant has authored a large number of articles on finance and economics in industry publications as well as several books on alternative investments and emerging markets, including three hedge fund bestsellers. He is a seasoned presenter and keynote speaker at top industry events. Professor Lhabitant holds graduate degrees in engineering, banking and finance and a PhD in Finance from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales of the University of Lausanne.