Not your tax advisor-- however you should review with your trusted tax professional

Bottom line, some type of investments can receive 60% of their capital gains at a long term captial gains rate of 15%, and the rest at a short term capital gains rate of = your tax rate, probably 28% or higher! 

But this is tricky stuff, with lots of ramifications, twists and turns.   Most tax accountants and even CPA's won't know any of this off the top of their head. FIND a trusted tax professional that already knows this stuff better than your 4 hours of reading.

But also be very aware of the ramifications of "Self Employment Income" which subjects potential profits to social security and medicare.  Section 1256 contracts and property are included in net earnings from self-employment.

from
http://www.etfguide.com/faqs.htm
How are commodity ETFs taxed?
Many commodity ETFs uses futures contracts to obtain their commodities exposure while others, like the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), own the physical commodity. Under current tax law, commodity ETFs that hold physical gold or silver are taxed at a long-term capital gains rate of 28%. Commodity products that use futures contracts are taxed each year even if you don't sell them. Capital gains are currently taxed at a hybrid rate of 60% long-term and 40% short-term gains.

Here is a more authoritative treatment on Code 1256 (allows the 60/40 long term/short term treatment, but disallows carryback or current deduction of more than $3000 in a tax year of investing losses), or the Code 475 option.    Honestly, I don't know the answer to how all this fits together

http://www.traderstatus.com/futures.htm

And here is a link to a classification of
"broad based" or "narrow based" as it relates to index options.

http://www.twenty-first.com/exchange-traded_index_options.htm