In spite of the roller coaster ride the TSX has taken this past week, commodities are still a strong long-term bet for investors, Donald Coxe said in a conference call Thursday.

The portfolio consultant to the Coxe Commodity Strategy Fund and global portfolio strategist, BMO Financial Group, spoke to investors about the fund in the context of recent fluctuations in the market, including significant drops in the prices of gold and oil.

Coxe said the July 13 announcement by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson about government efforts to prop up then-ailing mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae was a key event impacting the fund by triggering a large-scale sell-off of commodities and commodity stocks.

“I did not anticipate this,” said Coxe. “I knew there was a financial crisis…I didn’t know how they were going to deal with it.”

He said the sell-off in gold has been a major disappointment for the fund since gold generally holds up well in a financial crisis.

But Coxe assured investors that the sell-off wasn’t entirely negative for the fund, since falling prices have presented buying opportunities.

“We’re going to be able to buy some things far cheaper than I thought we could,” he said.

The fund was created with an objective of giving retail investors a relatively low volatility and diversified approach to global commodities, including a range of stocks that would be more difficult for investors to accumulate on their own. Its holdings are weighted with 36% in energy, 33% in agriculture, 22% in precious metals and 9% in base metals.

Coxe said that since all commodities carry risk, downturns are inevitable. “There will be rocks along the way, and certainly we will get negative surprises.”

Within a longer time frame of five years however, Coxe is confident in the strength of commodities.

“We’re going to have more than a billion people moving from poverty into middle class status in Asia, led by China and India. That creates demands for energy, metals and food,” he said.

“Over the next five years, commodity stocks will be probably the best equity group to be in.”

IE