Commodity Trading Tips from Kenya Based Company
To familiarize yourself with some investing basics, consider checking out An Introduction to Stocks, Futures, Forex & Options Markets before diving into commodities.
What is a Commodity ?
Commodities are the raw materials required to keep economies around the world in motion. There are four primary categories of commodities currently traded on the Market Including :
Energy:
This includes Gasoline, Heating Oil, Natural Gas and Crude Oil.
Livestock and Meat :
Lean Hogs, Pork Bellies, Live Cattle and Feeder cattle are all included in this Category.
Metals :
Gold, Silver, Platinum and Copper are all traded daily in the Commodities Exchange.
Agricultural :
This category includes raw materials such as Corn, Soybeans, Cocoa, Coffee, Cotton and Sugar.
There are two types of investors involved in Commodity Trading. The first group is known as hedgers, these are typically large corporations that depend on a consistent and reliable price for basic materials.The other group of investors is known as speculators. As a commodity trader, this is the type of investor you will be. As a speculator, you are not actually purchasing these items. Rather, you are purchasing contracts for these items which you later sell when you feel that the price of a particular commodity is on its way down.
Learning to Trade :
A 'commodity market' is a market that trades in primary rather than manufactured products. Soft commodities are agricultural products such as wheat, coffee, cocoa and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Investors access about 50 major commodity markets worldwide with purely financial transactions increasingly outnumbering physical trades in which goods are delivered. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. Futures are secured by physical assets.
Commodity markets can include physical trading and derivatives trading using spot prices, forwards, futures, and options on futures. Farmers have used a simple form of derivative trading in the commodity market for centuries for price risk management.
A financial derivative is a financial instrument whose value is derived from a commodity termed an underlier. Derivatives are either exchange-traded or over-the-counter (OTC). An increasing number of derivatives are traded via clearing houses some with Central Counterparty Clearing, which provide clearing and settlement services on a futures exchange, as well as off-exchange in the OTC market.
Derivatives such as futures contracts, Swaps (1970s-), Exchange-traded Commodities (ETC) (2003-), forward contracts have become the primary trading instruments in commodity markets. Futures are traded on regulated commodities exchanges. Over-the-counter (OTC) contracts are "privately negotiated bilateral contracts entered into between the contracting parties directly".
Exchange - traded funds (ETFs) began to feature commodities in 2003. Gold ETFs are based on "electronic gold" that does not entail the ownership of physical bullion, with its added costs of insurance and storage in repositories such as the London bullion market. According to the World Gold Council, ETFs allow investors to be exposed to the gold market without the risk of price volatility associated with gold as a physical commodity.
Commodity - based money and commodity markets in a crude early form are believed to have originated in Sumer between 4500 BC and 4000 BC. Sumerians first used clay tokens sealed in a clay vessel, then clay writing tablets to represent the amount - for example, the number of goats, to be delivered. These promises of time and date of delivery resemble futures contract.
Early civilizations variously used pigs, rare seashells, or other items as commodity money. Since that time traders have sought ways to simplify and standardize trade contracts.
Gold and silver markets evolved in classical civilizations. At first the precious metals were valued for their beauty and intrinsic worth and were associated with royalty. In time, they were used for trading and were exchanged for other goods and commodities, or for payments of labor. Gold, measured out, then became money.
Gold's scarcity, unique density and the way it could be easily melted, shaped, and measured made it a natural trading asset.
Beginning in the late 10th century, commodity markets grew as a mechanism for allocating goods, labor, land and capital across Europe. Between the late 11th and the late 13th century, English urbanization, regional specialization, expanded and improved infrastructure, the increased use of coinage and the proliferation of markets and fairs were evidence of commercialization. The spread of markets is illustrated by the 1466 installation of reliable scales in the villages of Sloten and Osdorp so villagers no longer had to travel to Haarlem or Amsterdam to weigh their locally produced cheese and butter.
Indeed, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, often cited as the first stock exchange, originated as a market for the exchange of commodities. Early trading on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange often involved the use of very sophisticated contracts, including short sales, forward contracts, and options. "Trading took place at the Amsterdam Bourse, an open aired venue, which was created as a commodity exchange in 1530 and rebuilt in 1608. Commodity exchanges themselves were a relatively recent invention, existing in only a handful of cities."
In 1864, in the United States, wheat, corn, cattle, and pigs were widely traded using standard instruments on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the world's oldest futures and options exchange. Other food commodities were added to the Commodity Exchange Act and traded through CBOT in the 1930s and 1940s, expanding the list from grains to include rice, mill feeds, butter, eggs, Irish potatoes and soybeans. Successful commodity markets require broad consensus on product variations to make each commodity acceptable for trading, such as the purity of gold in bullion.[citation needed] Classical civilizations built complex global markets trading gold or silver for spices, cloth, wood and weapons, most of which had standards of quality and timeliness.
Through the 19th century "the exchanges became effective spokesmen for, and innovators of, improvements in transportation, warehousing, and financing, which paved the way to expanded interstate and international trade."
Reputation and clearing became central concerns, and states that could handle them most effectively developed powerful financial centers.
