Commodity Research Bureau Index - CRB

During the Depression, your great-grandparents walked uphill both ways to school, and they were thankful for all the canned corn and dried meats they could eat.

The Depression was also the period during which the Commodity Research Bureau Index emerged as a way to measure price directions of the broader commodity industry.

The CRB Index was established by Milton Jiller, the founder of the Commodity Research Bureau. The index is made up of 19 different commodities. Roughly 41% is agricultural contracts, 39% is energy contracts, 13% is industrial metals, and 7% is precious metals.