Organization

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2012

Organization [Abstract]

Organization

1. Organization

The Nuveen Diversified Commodity Fund (the “Fund”) was organized as a Delaware statutory trust on December 7, 2005, to operate as a commodity pool. Nuveen Commodities Asset Management, LLC, the Fund’s manager (“NCAM” or the “Manager”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nuveen Investments, Inc. (“Nuveen”), is a Delaware limited liability company registered as a commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) and is a member of the National Futures Association (the “NFA”). The Fund commenced operations on September 27, 2010, with its initial public offering. The Fund operates pursuant to a Second Amended and Restated Trust Agreement dated as of March 30, 2012 (“Trust Agreement”). The Fund’s shares represent units of fractional undivided beneficial interest in, and ownership of, the Fund. The Fund’s shares trade on the NYSE MKT (formerly known as NYSE Amex) under the ticker symbol “CFD.” The Fund is not a mutual fund, a closed-end fund, or any other type of “investment company” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”), and is not subject to regulation thereunder.

The Manager has selected Gresham Investment Management LLC (“Gresham” or the “Commodity Sub-advisor”) to manage the Fund’s commodity investment strategy and its options strategy. Gresham is a Delaware limited liability company, the successor to Gresham Investment Management, Inc., formed in July 1992. Gresham is registered with the CFTC as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator, is a member of the NFA and is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) as an investment adviser. On December 31, 2011, Nuveen completed its acquisition of a 60% stake in Gresham. As part of the acquisition, Gresham’s management and investment teams will maintain a significant minority ownership stake in the firm, and will continue to operate independently while levering the strengths of Nuveen’s shared resources. Gresham continues to serve as the Fund’s Commodity Sub-advisor and there have been no changes in the Fund’s investment objectives, strategies or expenses as a result of this transaction.

The Manager has selected Nuveen Asset Management, LLC (“Nuveen Asset Management” or the “Collateral Sub-advisor”), an affiliate of the Manager, to serve as the Fund’s Collateral Sub-advisor, investing the Fund’s collateral in short-term, high grade debt securities. Nuveen Asset Management is a Delaware limited liability company and is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser.

The Fund’s investment objective is to generate higher risk-adjusted total return than leading commodity market benchmarks. Risk-adjusted total return refers to the income and capital appreciation generated by a portfolio (the combination of which equals its total return) per unit of risk taken, with such risk measured by the volatility of the portfolio’s total returns over a specific period of time. In pursuing its investment objective, the Fund invests directly in a diversified portfolio of commodity futures, forward and options contracts to obtain broad exposure to all principal groups in the global commodity markets. The Fund’s investment strategy has three elements:

• An actively managed portfolio of commodity futures and forward contracts utilizing Gresham’s proprietary Tangible Asset Program ^®, or TAP ^®, a long-only rules-based commodity investment strategy designed to maintain consistent, fully collateralized exposure to commodities as an asset class;

• An integrated program of writing commodity call options designed to enhance the risk-adjusted total return of the Fund’s commodity investments (TAP^® and the options strategy are collectively referred to as TAP PLUS ^SM); and

• A collateral portfolio of cash equivalents and short-term, high grade debt securities.