Commodity Trading Basics

CRAIG PIRRONG JANUARY, 2009

What is a Commodity?
A generic, largely unprocessed, good that can be

processed and resold. Usually think of a commodity as something homogeneous, standardized, easily defined In reality, this isnt the casecommodities are often very heterogeneous, hard to standardize, hard to define

Commodity Attributes
Quality Quantity Location Time

Quality Attributes
Many commodities differ widely by quality Wheatyou may look at a bushel of wheat, or wheat

standing in a field, and think it all looks the same to me But it aint Wheat has many potential quality attributes, including protein content, hardness, foreign matter, toxins Similarly, oil is a very heterogeneous commodity A commodity is a social construct (not to go all PoMo on you)

The Challenges of Measurement

Trading something typically requires some sort of

measurement of quantity and quality Measurement is costly Who measures? Who verifies? Many commodity markets have faced daunting challenges to create measurement systems

Measurement Systems in Grain

Early grain exchanges developed modern, liquid

markets only after they had confronted and addressed quality measurement problems Indeed, many early grain markets, such as the Chicago Board of Trade or the Liverpool Grain Exchange, began not as futures markets, but as private organizations of market participants charged with the task of solving measurement problems

Early History
Defining and enforcing quality attributes presented

huge problems to exchanges Even simple tasks as defining what a bushel is proved extremely complicated and divisive Private mechanisms proved vulnerable to opportunistic rent seeking and enforcement difficulties Major Constitutional case with important implications for government regulatory powers (Munn v. Illinois) grew out of disputes over commodity measurement

Standardization
Standardization of terms facilitates trade If all terms standardized, buyer and seller only have

to negotiate price and quantity However, standardization is not easy (as shown above) Moreover, standardization involves coststhe one size fits all problem How do you reconcile the benefits of standardization with the inherent heterogeneity of commodities, and differing preferences over commodity attributes among heterogeneous buyers and sellers?

An Example of Standardization: Oil

The NYMEX crude oil contract gives an idea of the

complexity of defining and standardizing a commodity It also illustrates the costs of standardization This is particularly evident in current market conditions The standard commodity is not necessarily representative of what buyers and sellers actually trade

Enforcement
Market participants often have an incentive to avoid

performing on transactions they agree to Some may want to perform, but are unable (bankruptcy; force majeure) Therefore, every market mechanism requires some sort of enforcement mechanism Third party enforcement through a court is often expensive Market participants have often created private mechanisms for enforcing contracts

Private Enforcement Mechanisms

Diamond trade Commodity markets, including grains, energy,

metals These usually rely on arbitration systems Typically, the ultimate punishment that these mechanisms rely on is exclusion from the trading body that enforces the rules But . . . What if exclusion is not a sufficient punishment? (E.g., Chicago grain warehousemen)

Trading Instruments
There are a variety of basic types of instruments

traded in commodity marketplaces Spot contracts Cash market contracts Forward contracts Futures contracts Options

Spot Trades
The term spot refers to a transaction for immediate

delivery That is, delivery on the spot This involves the prompt exchange of good for money Note that spot trades almost always involve actual delivery of the good specified in the contract All spot trades are generally cash trades

Cash Trades
The term cash trade or cash market is often

ambiguous and confusing It suggests the immediate exchange of cash for a good, but sometimes cash market trades are actually trades for future delivery Usually, though a cash trade is a principal-toprincipal trade that does not take place on an organized exchange That is cash market is to be understood as distinct from the futures market

Forward Markets
A forward contract is one that specifies the transfer of

ownership of a commodity at a future date in time Today the buyer and the seller agree on all contract terms, including price, quantity, quality, location, and the expiration/performance/delivery date No cash changes hands today (except, perhaps, for a performance bond) Contract is performed on the expiration date by the exchange of the good for cash Forward contracts not necessarily standardized consenting adults can choose whatever terms they want

Futures Contracts
Futures contracts are a specific type of forward

contract Futures contracts are traded on organized exchanges, such as the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) The exchange standardizes all contract terms Standardization facilitates centralized trading and market liquidity

Options
Forward, futures, and spot contracts create binding

obligations on the parties In contrast, as the name suggest, an option extends a choice to one of the contract participants Calloption to buy Putoption to sell If I buy an option, I buy the right If I sell an option, I give somebody else the right to make me do something Options are beneficial to the buyer, costly to the seller hence they sell at a positive price

The Uses of Contracts

Futures and Forward contracts can be used to

transfer ownership of a commodity These contracts can also be used to speculate They can also be used to manage riski.e., to hedge Hedging and speculation are the yin and yang of futures/forward contracts

Cash Settlement vs. Delivery Settlement

Futures and forward contracts can be settled at delivery

at expiration Alternatively, buyer and seller can agree to settle in cash at expiration Example: NYMEX HSC contracts Speculative and hedging uses of contracts only requires that settlement price at expiration reflects underlying value of the commodity. Main reason for settlement mechanism is to ensure that this convergence occurs Even futures contracts that contemplate physical delivery are usually closed prior to expiration

Trading Mechanisms
Organized Exchangescentralized trading of

standardized instruments Centralized trading can occur via face-to-face open outcry or computerized markets Computerized markets now dominate Over-the-Counter (or cash) markets decentralized, principal-to-principal markets

The Functions of Markets

Price discovery Resource allocation Risk transfer Contract enforcement

Price Discovery
Information about commodity value is highly

dispersed, and private By buying and selling on the basis of their information, market participants affect prices, and as a result, market prices reflect and aggregate the information of potentially millions of individuals In this way, markets discover pricesmore accurately, they facilitate the discovery and dissemination of dispersed information Prices as a sufficient statisticonly need to know the price, not all the quanta of information

Resource Allocation
By discovering prices, markets facilitate the efficient

allocation of resources That is, markets facilitate the flow of a good to those who value it most highly Centralized markets can reduce transactions costs, thereby reducing the frictions that impede this flow

Risk Transfer
The prices of commodities (and financial

instruments) fluctuate randomly, thereby imposing price risks on market participants Those who handle a commodity most efficiently (e.g., producers and consumers) are not necessarily the most efficient bearers of this price risk Futures and other derivatives markets permit the unbundling of price risksthose who bear price risks most efficiently can bear them, and those who handle the commodity most efficiently can perform that function

Contract Performance
Any forward/futures trade poses risks of non-

performance As prices change, either the buyer or the seller loses moneyand hence has an incentive to avoid performance Even if one party wants to perform, s/he may be financially unable to do so Therefore, EVERY trading mechanism must have some means of enforcing contract performance

Contract Enforcement
There are many means of imposing costs on non-

performers, thereby giving them an incentive to perform Reputational costs Exclusion from trading mechanism Performance bonds Legal penalties

Contract Enforcement in OTC Markets

OTC markets typically rely on bilateral and

reputational mechanisms OTC market participants evaluate the creditworthiness of their counterparties, and limit their dealings based on these evaluations Performance bonds (margins) are also widely employed In the event of a default on a contract, some OTC counterparties have (effectively) priority claims on (some of) the defaulters assets in bankruptcy (netting, ability to seize collateral)

Contract Enforcement in Futures Markets

Modern futures markets typically rely on a

centralized contract enforcement mechanismthe clearinghouse The CH is a central counterparty (CCP) who becomes the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer CH collects margins Members of the CH (usually large financial firms) share default costs, with the intent of keeping customers whole

Legal Risks in Trading Markets

Losers have an incentive to find, exploit, and

perhaps create legal loopholes to escape their contractual commitments Virtually every new commodity market has had to overcome such legal risks Contracting dialecticmarket forms, begins to grow, somebody exploits a legal loophole to escape obligations, contracts and market mechanisms revised to close this loophole

Examples of the Dialectic in Action

Use of non-enforceability of wagers to escape

obligations under futures contracts Claim that losing party did not have the legal authority to enter into the agreement (e.g., interest rate swaps & UK local councilsHammersmith & Fulham) Disputes over whether contingency specified in contract occurred (credit derivativesRussian default?)