Organization

6 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization

(1) Organization

ETF Managers Group Commodity Trust I (the "Trust") was organized as a Delaware statutory trust on July 23, 2014. The Trust is a series trust formed pursuant to the Delaware Statutory Trust Act and currently includes two separate series. SIT RISING RATE ETF ("RISE") is the first series of the Trust and is a commodity pool that continuously issues common shares of beneficial interest that may be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca, Inc. stock exchange ("NYSE Arca"). The second series of the Trust, BREAKWAVE DRY BULK SHIPPING ETF ("BDRY," and together with RISE, the "Funds"), is also a commodity pool that continuously issues shares of beneficial interest that may be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca. The Funds are managed and controlled by ETF Managers Capital LLC (the "Sponsor"), a Delaware limited liability company. The Sponsor is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") as a "commodity pool operator" ("CPO") and is a member of the National Futures Trading Association ("NFA"). Sit Fixed Income Advisors II, LLC ("Sit"), a subsidiary of Sit Investment Associates, Inc., is registered as a "commodity trading advisor" ("CTA") with the CFTC and serves as RISE's commodity trading advisor. Breakwave Advisors, LLC ("Breakwave") is registered as a CTA with the CFTC and serves as BDRY's commodity trading advisor.

RISE commenced investment operations on February 19, 2015. RISE commenced trading on NYSE Arca on February 19, 2015 and trades under the symbol "RISE." BDRY commenced investment operations on March 22, 2018. BDRY commenced trading on NYSE Arca on March 22, 2018 and trades under the symbol "BDRY."

Effective January 1, 2018, Sit is paid a fee equal to 0.20% per annum of the value of RISE's average daily net assets for Sit's services as the commodity trading advisor to RISE.

RISE's investment objective is to profit from rising interest rates by tracking the performance of a portfolio (the "RISE Benchmark Portfolio") consisting of exchange traded futures contracts and options on futures on 2, 5 and 10 year U.S. Treasury securities ("Treasury Instruments") weighted to achieve a targeted negative 10-year average effective portfolio duration (the "Benchmark Component Instruments"). RISE seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in the Benchmark Component Instruments currently constituting the RISE Benchmark Portfolio. The RISE Benchmark Portfolio is maintained by Sit and will be rebalanced, reconstituted, or both, monthly (typically on the 15^th of each month and on the next business day if the 15^th is a holiday, weekend, or other day on which the national exchanges are closed) to maintain a negative 10-year average effective duration. The RISE Benchmark Portfolio and RISE will each maintain a short position in Treasury Instruments. RISE does not use futures contracts or options to obtain leveraged investment results. RISE will not invest in swaps or other over the counter derivative instruments.

The weighting of the Treasury Instruments constituting the Benchmark Component Instruments will be based on each maturity's duration contribution. The expected range for the duration weighted percentage of the 2 year and 5 year maturity Treasury Instruments will be from 30% to 70%. The expected range for the duration weighted percentage of the 10-year maturity Treasury Instruments will be from 5% to 25%. The relative weightings of the Benchmark Component Instruments will be shifted between maturities when there are material changes in the shape of the yield curve, for example, if the Federal Reserve began raising short term interest rates more than long term interest rates. In such an instance, Sit, which maintains the RISE Benchmark Portfolio, will elect to increase the weightings of the 2 year and reduce the weighting in the 10-year maturity. Conversely, Sit will do the opposite if the Federal Reserve began raising long term interest rates more than short term interest rates. Reconstitution and rebalancing each will occur monthly, on the 15th, except for as noted above or if there are radical changes in the yield curve such that effective duration is outside of a range from negative nine to negative 11-year average effective duration, in which case Sit will adjust the maturities of the Treasury Instruments before the next expected monthly reconstitution.

The Sponsor anticipates that approximately 5% to 15% of RISE's assets will be used as payment for or collateral for Treasury Instruments. In order to collateralize its Treasury Instrument positions, RISE will hold such assets, from which it will post margin to its futures commission merchant ("FCM"), SG Americas Securities, LLC, in an amount equal to the margin required by the relevant exchange, and transfer to its FCM any additional amounts that may be separately required by the FCM. When establishing positions in Treasury Instruments, RISE will be required to deposit initial margin with a value of approximately 3% to 10% of the value of each Treasury Instrument position at the time it is established. These margin requirements are subject to change from time to time by the exchange or the FCM. On a daily basis, RISE will be obligated to pay, or entitled to receive, variation margin in an amount equal to the change in the daily settlement level of its Treasury Instruments positions. Any assets not required to be posted as margin with the FCM will be held at RISE's custodian in cash or cash equivalents, as discussed below.

The RISE Benchmark Portfolio will be invested in Benchmark Component Instruments and rebalanced, as noted above to maintain a negative average effective portfolio duration of approximately 10 years. Duration is a measure of estimated price sensitivity relative to changes in interest rates. Portfolios with longer durations are typically more sensitive to changes in interest rates. For example, if interest rates rise by 1%, the market value of a security with an effective duration of 5 years would decrease by 5%, with all other factors being constant, and likewise the market value of a security with an effective duration of negative 5 years would increase by 5%, with all other factors being constant. The correlation between duration and price sensitivity is greater for securities rated investment-grade than it is for securities rated below investment-grade.

Duration estimates are based on assumptions by Sit and are subject to a number of limitations. Effective duration is calculated based on historical price changes of U.S. Treasuries and Treasury Instruments held by the RISE Benchmark Portfolio, and therefore is a more accurate estimate of price sensitivity provided interest rates remain within their historical range. Investments in debt securities typically decrease in value when interest rates rise. The risk is usually greater for longer-term debt securities.

When RISE purchases an option that expires "out of the money," RISE will realize a loss. RISE may not be able to invest its assets in futures and options contracts having an aggregate notional amount exactly equal to that which is required to achieve a negative 10-year average effective duration. For example, as standardized contracts, U.S. Treasury futures contracts are denominated in specific dollar amounts, and RISE's NAV and the proceeds from the sale of a Creation Basket are unlikely to be an exact multiple of the amounts of those contracts. As a result, in such circumstances, RISE may be better able to achieve the exact amount of exposure desired through the use of other investments.

BDRY's investment objective is to provide investors with exposure to the daily change in the price of dry bulk freight futures, before expenses and liabilities of BDRY, by tracking the performance of a portfolio (the "BDRY Benchmark Portfolio", and together with the RISE Benchmark Portfolio, the "Benchmark Portfolios") consisting of a three-month strip of the nearest calendar quarter of futures contracts on specified indexes (each a "Reference Index") that measure rates for shipping dry bulk freight ("Freight Futures"). Each Reference Index is published each United Kingdom business day by the London-based Baltic Exchange Ltd. (the "Baltic Exchange") and measures the charter rate for shipping dry bulk freight in a specific size category of cargo ship – Capesize, Panamax or Supramax. The three Reference Indexes are as follows:

● Capesize: the Capesize 5TC Index;

● Panamax: the Panamax 4TC Index; and

● Supramax: the Supramax 6TC Index.

The value of the Capesize 5TC Index is disseminated at 11:00 a.m., London Time and the value of the Panamax 4TC Index and the Supramax 6TC Index each is disseminated at 1:00 p.m., London Time. The Reference Index information disseminated by the Baltic Exchange also includes the components and value of each component in each Reference Index. Such Reference Index information also is widely disseminated by Reuters and/or other major market data vendors.

BDRY seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing substantially all of its assets in the Freight Futures currently constituting the BDRY Benchmark Portfolio. The BDRY Benchmark Portfolio includes all existing positions to maturity and settles them in cash. During any given calendar quarter, the BDRY Benchmark Portfolio progressively increases its positions to the next calendar quarter three-month strip, thus maintaining constant exposure to the Freight Futures market as positions mature.

The BDRY Benchmark Portfolio maintains long-only positions in Freight Futures. The BDRY Benchmark Portfolio includes a combination of Capesize, Panamax and Supramax Freight Futures. More specifically, the BDRY Benchmark Portfolio includes 50% exposure in Capesize Freight Futures contracts, 40% exposure in Panamax Freight Futures contracts and 10% exposure in Supramax Freight Futures contracts. The BDRY Benchmark Portfolio does not include and BDRY does not invest in swaps, non-cleared dry bulk freight forwards or other over-the-counter derivative instruments that are not cleared through exchanges or clearing houses. BDRY may hold exchange-traded options on Freight Futures. The BDRY Benchmark Portfolio is maintained by Breakwave and will be rebalanced annually. The Freight Futures currently constituting the BDRY Benchmark Portfolio, as well as the daily holdings of BDRY are available on BDRY's website at www.drybulketf.com.

When establishing positions in Freight Futures, BDRY will be required to deposit initial margin with a value of approximately 10% to 40% of the notional value of each Freight Futures position at the time it is established. These margin requirements are established and subject to change from time to time by the relevant exchanges, clearing houses or BDRY's FCM, MacQuarie Futures USA LLC. On a daily basis, BDRY is obligated to pay, or entitled to receive, variation margin in an amount equal to the change in the daily settlement level of its Freight Futures positions. Any assets not required to be posted as margin with the FCM may be held at BDRY's custodian or remain with the FCM in cash or cash equivalents, as discussed below.

BDRY was created to provide investors with a cost-effective and convenient way to gain exposure to daily changes in the price of Freight Futures. BDRY is intended to be used as a diversification opportunity as part of a complete portfolio, not a complete investment program.

The Funds will incur certain expenses in connection with their operations. The Funds will hold cash or cash equivalents such as U.S. Treasuries or other high credit quality, short-term fixed-income or similar securities for direct investment or as collateral for the Treasury Instruments and for other liquidity purposes and to meet redemptions that may be necessary on an ongoing basis. These expenses and income from the cash and cash equivalent holdings may cause imperfect correlation between changes in the Funds' net asset value ("NAV") and changes in the Benchmark Portfolios, because the Benchmark Portfolios do not reflect expenses or income.

The Funds seek to trade their positions prior to maturity; accordingly, natural market forces may cost the Funds while rebalancing. Each time the Funds seek to reconstitute their positions, barring movement in the underlying securities, the futures and option prices may be higher or lower. Such differences in price, barring a movement in the price of the underlying security, will constitute "roll yield" and may inhibit the Funds' ability to achieve their respective investment objective.

Several factors determine the total return from investing in a futures contract position. One factor that impacts the total return that will result from investing in near month futures contracts and "rolling" those contracts forward each month is the price relationship between the current near month contract and the next month contract.

The CTA will close existing positions when it determines it would be appropriate to do so and reinvest the proceeds in other positions. Positions may also be closed out to meet orders for redemption baskets.