As part of my ongoing exploration of global commodity markets, I’ve often found that reliable historical data is the backbone of analysis and informed trading decisions. Whether you’re building backtests for a trading strategy, studying long-term price cycles, or simply curious about how commodities like oil, wheat, or gold have traded over time, access to accurate historical futures data is a must.
But where do we get this data from, and what are the pros and cons of each option? I’ve done the digging—here’s what I found.
🔌 1. Professional Data Providers (Paid)
These are platforms that supply high-quality, reliable futures price data—often going back decades, with multiple frequencies (daily, intraday, tick).
Examples:
- Databento – Provides both real-time and historical futures data across asset classes, including energy and ags. Nice if you’re building an automated setup or Python/R workflow.
- Barchart Solutions – Good for comprehensive data, particularly if you want futures chains or FTP/API access.
- Portara – Specializes in long-term historical futures with continuous contract options (e.g., back-adjusted continuous data), which is key if you’re building models spanning multiple contract cycles.
- CME Datamine – Direct from the exchange. Tick-level accuracy but not cheap.
✅ Best if you need full accuracy, intraday or tick data, or long histories.
📊 2. Market Data Platforms & Brokers (Subscription-Based)
Some brokers and charting tools (like Interactive Brokers, Bloomberg, or TradingView Pro) offer historical futures data as part of their service. However, the availability varies, and data may not always be exportable or deep enough for longer-term research.
✅ Works for casual analysis, charting, or EOD data.
🌍 3. Public & Free Sources
There are some useful public datasets for commodity prices, but most of them are spot prices, not futures. That’s a key difference. Futures prices reflect delivery at a later date, and they often trade at a premium or discount to spot. Still, if your goal is macro research and you’re okay with spot, here are options:
- World Bank Commodity Database
- UNCTAD Commodity Price Stats
- Quandl (some datasets are free, others are paid)
⚠️ Use with caution if you specifically need actual futures contracts.