Commodity futures
Podcast: the future of retail investment in oil
Will negative prices and big losses curb retail investors’ appetite for oil futures over the longer term?
China oil future approved, March start targeted, says source
International banks see healthy interest from overseas clients
Chinese clampdown on HFT may hinder new oil contract
Tighter rules on high-frequency trading being considered after China’s stock market meltdown may have the unintended effect of undermining new Shanghai crude oil contract
Index investing paper shows gap between theory and reality
The theories of commodity index investment gurus Gary Gorton and K Geert Rouwenhorst have little in common with the experience of real-world investors
Commodity end-users fret over shrinking number of FCMs
Futures brokers attack costly new rules at a CFTC meeting on September 22
Commodity index advocates stick to their guns
Ten years after publishing an influential paper that fuelled the commodity investment boom, Yale professors Gary Gorton and K Geert Rouwenhorst have revisited their study and found their arguments still "largely hold up". But critics are quick to disagree
Nasdaq energy futures face liquidity challenge
New energy futures exchange seeks to win market share from CME Group and Ice with cheaper lookalike contracts, but traders say it faces an uphill battle to attract liquidity
Video: FCStone calls for balance in capital and margin rules
The CFTC must balance the needs of stability and market liquidity in its US Dodd-Frank Act capital and margin rules, says INTL FCStone's global head of risk in a video interview at Energy Risk Summit USA
Cutting edge: Kriging smooth energy futures curves
This paper applies the method of kriging from geostatistics to extract smooth curves from energy futures prices. How the method can interpolate market prices is demonstrated, both for contracts with fixed delivery times and for delivery over a period,…
Hedging commodity exposure in international markets
An increasingly diverse set of market participants require agricultural price risk management tools that can not only match current needs but can also adapt to future market developments
Lynton Jones laments IPE's hesitation over electronic trading
Lynton Jones, the IPE’s former chief executive, tried hard to promote electronic trading in Brent futures. But those efforts met with strong resistance, he tells Mark Pengelly
Ice Brent changes prove a hard pill to swallow
Ice says a plan to shift the expiry dates of futures and options on Brent crude oil is an important fix that will tighten the link between the physical and futures markets. However, carrying out the necessary changes could be painful for market…
Turning points: Frédéric Lasserre, Belaco Capital
Recent years have seen an outflow of commodity derivatives talent from banks towards hedge funds and independent traders. This is the path trodden by Frédéric Lasserre, former head of Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking’s commodity research…
PFGBest bankruptcy fuels calls for stronger protection of customer funds
The collapse of Peregrine Financial Group, which comes just nine months after the bankruptcy of MF Global, has raised the pressure on US regulators to boost protection of customer funds held by futures commission merchants
DME appoints Fix as chief executive
The Dubai Mercantile Exchange appoints new chief executive from BNP Paribas
Singapore commodity derivatives regulation set for overhaul
Financial authorities in Singapore have recommended consolidating the oversight of all commodity derivatives and futures to one regulatory body, as part of a proposed broader move to regulate the country's derivatives market in line with international…
Cutting edge: Valuation of spread commodity structures
In this paper, Dan Mahoney and Krzysztof Wolyniec show that in co-integrated (mean-reverting) futures markets, active dynamic hedging is required to realise the quadratic variation of the underlying spread process. Using static hedges/portfolios yields…
A divided CFTC approves new commodities position limit rules
"The pursuit by industry of legitimate and appropriate risk management is now made unduly onerous," says CFTC commissioner Scott O'Malia
Speculation not a major cause of commodity market volatility: FOA
Futures and Options Association report refutes negative impact of speculators on commodities markets
Experts discuss need for commodity speculation
Squeezing out speculative capital will affect commodity market liquidity, regulator must engage with market to prevent unintended consequences