Download PDF
Featured Article – Contracting with Futures
In our last installment, we discussed forward contracting agreements in the cash market along with some of the considerations that go along with this type of contracting. For this month’s article, we will turn our attention to the futures market and focus on contracting with futures. A futures contract is a standardized agreement between a buyer and seller that establishes a price for an underlying asset such as a commodity or financial instrument for a future period. The terms of the contract such as the size or quantity of the instrument, the quality and the specific settlement procedures between the buyer and seller are pre-established by the exchange at…
Margin Watch Reports
Not so friendly to the meat markets this past month was a report from the World Health Organization classifying processed meats as a “Group 1” category of substances including alcohol, asbestos and tobacco smoke with “sufficient evidence” of causing cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the WHO committee that released the report, also cited red meat including beef, pork, veal and lamb as agents that are “likely carcinogenic” based on “limited evidence”. This news has had a big impact on the livestock markets, particularly for hogs, as many of the news stories surrounding the release of this study prominently featured references to and pictures of bacon and ham – two of the most commonly consumed processed meats derived …