Commodity Exchanges AND Futures Trading- PRINCIPLES AND OPERATING METHODS by Julius B. Baer. Contents include: Preface x I HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF COMMODITY EXCHANGES 3 Ancient Markets Markets in the Dark Ages The Medieval Fairs Merchant Associations The Law Merchant Courts of the Fair The Law Merchant Becomes the Common Law in the United States Development of the Modern Commod ity Market Organized Commodity Markets Not All Com modity Markets Have Exchanges Organization of Markets before Exchanges Brokers Commission AgentsDealers Risk Bearing Risks of Commodity Dealers The Market Risk of the Dealer Credit Risks of Dealers Other Risks of Dealers Major Defect in the Physical Markets Which Operate with out Exchanges The Growing Need for Exchange Services in All Commodity MarketsProducers' Associations Dealers' Trade Associations Establishment of Self-Regulation by Deal ers' Trade Associations Arbitration of Disputes Standardiza tion of Contracts Standardization of Qualities or Grades II THE ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF COMMODITY EXCHANGES 27 The Exchange Market Place of the Commodity Exchange in Distribution The Risks of Modern Industrial Society The Exchange Market as a Guarantor of Deliveries ( at Contract Time) and of Payments for Deliveries ( at Contract Price) Exchanges Make Commodities Liquid Profit Margins in Dis tribution Are Reduced Exchanges Expedite Marketing-Exchanges Form a World Market Exchanges Level Prices be tween Markets Buyers May Anticipate Requirements Continuous Prices a Factor in Fair Dealing Does the Exchange Stabilize Prices? Price Movements Discount the Future The Exchange as a Source of Trade Information Exchanges Reg ulate Speculation Exchanges Promote Uniformity in the Trade Exchanges as Regulators of Consumption. III SPECULATION A CONSTRUCTIVE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ON COMMODITY EXCHANGES 51 The Function of Organized Speculation in the Distribution of StaplesWithout Organized Speculation Exchange Markets Could Not FunctionAttacks on Speculation Defenses of Speculation Speculation and Gambling Does Speculation Make for Lower Prices? Phases of the Contention that Specu lation Lowers Prices Does Speculation Steady Prices? Ex change Trading Levels Prices between Markets The Specula tor's Assumption of Risk Speculators Provide a Broad Market Large Volume of Transactions on Exchanges Short Selling Regulation of Speculation IV GRADING, STANDARDIZATION, AND INSPECTION 86 Advantages of Inspection and Grading Establishment of Standard Grades and Methods of Classification Standards in the Cotton Trade Inspection and Grading in the Grain Trade Standards in the Rubber Trade Sampling Grading Ware housing V PUBLICITY OF PRICES, CROP AND MARKET REPORTS, AND OTHER STATISTICS 96 Importance of Reports and Statistics The Importance of Widespread Publication of Prices Sources of Information-Reports Issued Daily Report of the New York Cotton Ex changeDaily Market Report of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange Crop Statistics in the Grain Trade Annual Reports Prompt and Widespread Publication of Prices Con trol of Quotations Newspaper Reports Market Letters Reg ulation of Consumption VI COMMODITIES ADAPTABLE TO FUTURES TRADING 110 Units Must Be Homogeneous The Commodity Must Be Sus ceptible of Standardization of Grades Supply and Demand Must Be Large The Supply Must Flow Naturally to Market-Supply and Demand Must Be Uncertain The Commodity Must Not Be Perishable Commodities in Which Exchange Trading Is Conducted Commodities Not Adapted to Futures Trading Commodities Which Might Be Adapted to Futures Trading The Metals Iron-Other Commodities Wool Pe troleum Coal Conclusions VII THE FUTURES OR EXCHANGE CONTRACT 126 Physical ( Cash or Spot) Markets and Futures Markets Devel opment of the Futures or Exchange Contract Origin of the Contents vii Futures or Exchange ContractA Futures Co

More fortunes are made and lost more quickly in the commodity futures markets than anywhere else. It is a game of consequence where profits won by one player are lost by another. The stakes are high, but for those who know how to play well, the rewards can be immense. Trading Commodities and Financial Futures shows you how to play the game to win. In this book, one of the world's most experienced traders introduces a new step-by-step methodology built on more than twenty-five years of success. George Kleinman begins with the basics—including a complete primer on how futures and options trading works, how traders' psychology impacts the markets, and how to avoid the pitfalls that trip up so many traders. This edition offers updated coverage of electronic trading, the latest contracts, and state-of-the-art trading techniques you won't find in any competing book. Previous editions of Kleinman's Commodity Futures and Options became international best sellers. This one offers even more insight for winning the commodities game—and winning big. Winning in a zero-sum game For every commodities winner, there's a loser: here's how to be the winner The trend is your friend How to use techniques designed to generate profits in a trending market The fundamentals: supply and demand in every key market Mastering the markets, from crude oil to soybeans, gold to coffee, foreign exchange to stock index futures TMVTT: The most valuable technical tool A unique trading methodology—how it works and how to use it When to get in, when to get out How to recognize the beginning—and end—of major market moves Twenty-five trading secrets of the pros A lifetime's experience, distilled into twenty-five crucial tips

Handbook of Multi-Commodity Markets and ProductsOver recent decades, the marketplace has seen an increasing integration, not only among different types of commodity markets such as energy, agricultural, and metals, but also with financial markets. This trend raises important questions about how to identify and analyse opportunities in and manage risks of commodity products. The Handbook of Multi-Commodity Markets and Products offers traders, commodity brokers, and other professionals a practical and comprehensive manual that covers market structure and functioning, as well as the practice of trading across a wide range of commodity markets and products. Written in non-technical language, this important resource includes the information needed to begin to master the complexities of and to operate successfully in today’s challenging and fluctuating commodity marketplace. Designed as a practical practitioner-orientated resource, the book includes a detailed overview of key markets – oil, coal, electricity, emissions, weather, industrial metals, freight, agricultural and foreign exchange – and contains a set of tools for analysing, pricing and managing risk for the individual markets. Market features and the main functioning rules of the markets in question are presented, along with the structure of basic financial products and standardised deals. A range of vital topics such as stochastic and econometric modelling, market structure analysis, contract engineering, as well as risk assessment and management are presented and discussed in detail with illustrative examples to commodity markets. The authors showcase how to structure and manage both simple and more complex multi-commodity deals. Addressing the issues of profit-making and risk management, the book reveals how to exploit pay-off profiles and trading strategies on a diversified set of commodity prices. In addition, the book explores how to price energy products and other commodities belonging to markets segmented across specific structural features. The Handbook of Multi-Commodity Markets and Products includes a wealth of proven methods and useful models that can be selected and developed in order to make appropriate estimations of the future evolution of prices and appropriate valuations of products. The authors additionally explore market risk issues and what measures of risk should be adopted for the purpose of accurately assessing exposure from multi-commodity portfolios. This vital resource offers the models, tools, strategies and general information commodity brokers and other professionals need to succeed in today’s highly competitive marketplace.

Forbes Magazine called the 1,600-page, original Handbook of Futures Markets ``an exceptionally fine collection of work on every phase of the futures market.'' Now in paperback (and weighing much less than the six-and-a-half pound hardcover edition), this concise version covers the essential principles and methods in the encyclopedic original in 800 pages. Comprising all the material in Parts I through V of the original handbook, this edition brings together the know-how of the markets' foremost authorities. It covers futures markets and their operation; factors that influence the markets; uses of the markets, including hedging, managing interest rate risk, commodity spreads and options; forecasting methods and tools; and risk and money management.

In The Futures, Emily Lambert, senior writer at Forbes magazine, tells us the rich and dramatic history of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, which together comprised the original, most bustling futures market in the world. She details the emergence of the futures business as a kind of meeting place for gamblers and farmers and its subsequent transformation into a sophisticated electronic market where contracts are traded at lightning-fast speeds. Lambert also details the disastrous effects of Wall Street's adoption of the futures contract without the rules and close-knit social bonds that had made trading it in Chicago work so well. Ultimately Lambert argues that the futures markets are the real "free" markets and that speculators, far from being mere parasites, can serve a vital economic and social function given the right architecture. The traditional futures market, she explains, because of its written and cultural limits, can serve as a useful example for how markets ought to work and become a tonic for our current financial ills.

Covers the philosophy of technical analysis, charting theory, trends, reversal patterns, continuation patterns, commodity indices, averages, oscillators, the Elliott wave theory, time cycles, computers, and trading tactics.