Assets of all types have exploded in 2021. There’ve been NFTs, trading cards, and crypto.

The latest rage: commodity prices.

We tapped one of finance Twitter’s most popular accounts (@ParikPatelCFA, who writes at Bullish Studios) to explain what’s happening:

• Lumber: The pencil is mightier than the sword… because it’s made of wood. The price per thousand board feet of lumber recently hit an all-time high of ~$1.4k (up 280% since the start of the pandemic).

  The price is being spurred on by strong housing demand met with tightening supply and rising input costs.

Oil: If you ever think that you can’t recover from something, remember that West Texas Intermediate crude bounced back from negative $37.63 to ~$66 in just over a year.

After tumbling to negative prices in April of last year due to a Saudi-Russia price war and the COVID-19 pandemic, crude has made quite the comeback and is expected to rise to $77 a barrel in just 6 months.

• If you’re looking to buy some, I have 17 barrels still sitting in my backyard from April. Don’t ask.

Palladium: You know how everyone says that cars are a depreciating asset… Well, there’s one part of your car that’s actually appreciated in value.

The catalytic converter. Found attached to your vehicle’s tailpipe, it contains a precious metal called palladium that has soared to a record high due to expected supply constraints and rebounding demand from automakers.