خرید و دانلود نسخه کامل کتاب Commodity Market Trading and Investment: A Practitioners Guide to the Markets – Original PDF

A commodity futures contract is an agreement to buy (or sell) a specified quantity of a commodity at a future date, at a price agreed upon when enter- ing into the contract—the futures price. The futures price is different from the value of a futures contract. Upon entering a futures contract, no cash changes hands between buyers and sellers—and hence the value of the contract is zero at its inception. How then is the futures price determined? The alternative to obtaining the commodity in the future is simply to wait and purchase it in the future spot market. Because the future spot price is unknown today, a futures contract is a way to lock in the terms of trade for future transactions. In determining the fair futures price, market participants will compare the current futures price to the spot price that can be expected to prevail at the maturity of the futures contract. In other words, futures markets are forward looking and the futures price will embed expectations about the future spot price. If spot prices are expected to be much higher at the maturity of the futures contract than they are today, the current futures price will be set at a high level relative to the current spot price. Lower expected spot prices in the future will be reflected in a low cur- rent futures price