Investors who are optimistic about lead believe the supply and demand dynamics discussed above could push lead prices up in the coming years. While lead may be considered higher risk than other commodities, it can still prove to be worth the costs and energy, and those who want to start investing in the sector have a variety of options. Adding lead-mining stocks to your portfolio is one way to gain investment exposure to lead, but this route can be difficult, as lead is generally mined as a by-product of silver or fellow base metals copper and zinc. Major miners that produce some lead include BHP (NYSE:BHP,ASX:BHP,LSE:BHP) and Teck Resources (TSX:TECK.A,TSX:TECK.B,NYSE:TECK), though of course there are smaller companies with lead assets. Exposure to lead can also be obtained via futures contracts on the London Metal Exchange. Futures are traded in lot sizes of 25 MT, and their price is quoted in US dollars and cents per MT. Another possibility is to invest in exchange-traded products (ETPs) with a focus on lead. A number of broad-based industrial metals ETPs offer lead exposure, including the Invesco DB Base Metals ETF (ARCA:DBB) and the iPath Bloomberg Industrial Metals ETN (ARCA:JJM). There is also a pure-play lead ETP available called the iPath Bloomberg Lead Subindex Total Return ETN (ARCA:LD); it is linked to an index that consists of lead futures contracts.