Commodities Trading Is Banking's New Battleground: Matthew Lynn

``Forget bonuses. Don't worry about bailouts. That's all history. The battleground that matters most for the banking and finance industry right now is the profits it is making from commodities trading...Investors held a record $412 billion of raw-material assets at the end of March, almost 50 percent more than a year earlier, according to estimates by Barclays Capital. Trading in futures and options contracts is rising rapidly. For banks and fund managers, it is a lucrative business. And the more volatile it is, the more profitable it gets. ''