Buying the underlying commodity is a valid alternative, but if your holding with the view of receiving a passive dividend of somekind, then owning stock in the commodity producing company achieves that goal.
Quote from newguy05:
This is not a criticism of your holdings, just offering a discussion point. The only thing with buying commodity companies are the counterparty risk. Yes it's very unlikely any of them will go under, but in this market you never know what will happen - accounting frauds, some surprise news etc...
By buying pure commodities, you sac the potential for a higher % return but gain a slight peace of mind, as the raw commodities can never go bankrupt.
Enron aside, note alcoa (aa) one of the largest. There was real fear of bankruptcy early in the year for this company, and i think it did come pretty close, the stock were certainly at the bk level at $5