Commodity
In City parlance, a commodity is any homogenous item which may be freely bought and sold.
Commodities can be shares, furniture or houses, but the term typically refers to things like coffee, cocoa and soya beans (soft commodities) or gold, aluminium, platinium (hard commodities).
Commodities are typically bought and sold in the futures markets where producers combine with manufacturers and speculators to create a liquid market. See also options
Since the film "Trading Places" with Dan Akroyd and Eddy Murphy, mostpeople have some idea of what commodity trading is all about and, yes, it does sometimes get almost as frantic as the film portrayed.