A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit 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.
In finance, a futures contract is a standardized forward contract, a legal agreement to buy or sell something at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future, between parties not known to each other. The asset transacted is usually a commodity or financial instrument. The predetermined price the parties agree to buy and sell the asset for is known as the forward price. The specified time in the future—which is when delivery and payment occur—is known as the delivery date. Because it is a function of an underlying asset, a futures contract is a derivative product.
A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts; that is, a contract to buy specific quantities of a commodity or financial instrument at a specified price with delivery set at a specified time in the future. These types of contracts fall into the category of derivatives. A counterpart to the futures market is the spot market, where trades occur immediately after a transaction agreement has been made, rather than at a predetermined time in the future. Futures instruments are priced according to the movement of the underlying asset. The aforementioned category is named "derivatives" because the value of these instruments are derived from another asset class.
Euronext N.V. is a European stock exchange with registered office in Amsterdam and corporate headquarters at La Défense in Greater Paris which operates markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Lisbon, Dublin, Oslo and Paris. With around 1,500 listed companies worth €4.1 trillion in market capitalisation as of end July 2019, Euronext is the largest stock exchange in continental Europe. In addition to cash and derivatives markets, Euronext provides listing market data, market solutions, custody and settlement services. Its total product offering includes equities, exchange-traded funds, warrants and certificates, bonds, derivatives, commodities and indices as well as a foreign exchange trading platform.
The forward market is the informal over-the-counter financial market by which contracts for future delivery are entered into. Standardized forward contracts are called futures contracts and traded on a futures exchange.
A currency future, also known as an FX future or a foreign exchange future, is a futures contract to exchange one currency for another at a specified date in the future at a price that is fixed on the purchase date; see Foreign exchange derivative. Typically, one of the currencies is the US dollar. The price of a future is then in terms of US dollars per unit of other currency. This can be different from the standard way of quoting in the spot foreign exchange markets. The trade unit of each contract is then a certain amount of other currency, for instance €125,000. Most contracts have physical delivery, so for those held at the end of the last trading day, actual payments are made in each currency. However, most contracts are closed out before that. Investors can close out the contract at any time prior to the contract's delivery date.
The International Exchange, now ICE Futures, based in London, was one of the world's largest energy futures and options exchanges. Its flagship commodity, Brent Crude was a world benchmark for oil prices, but the exchange also handled futures contracts and options on fuel oil, natural gas, electricity, coal contracts and, as of 22 April 2005, carbon emission allowances with the European Climate Exchange (ECX).
The Baltic Exchange is a membership organisation for the maritime industry, and freight market information provider for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative contracts. It was located at 24–28 St Mary Axe, London, until the building was destroyed by a bomb in 1992, and is now located at 38 St Mary Axe. It has further offices in Europe, across Asia, and in the United States.
Osaka Securities Exchange Co., Ltd. is the second largest securities exchange in Japan, in terms of amount of business handled.
In finance, a single-stock future (SSF) is a type of futures contract between two parties to exchange a specified number of stocks in a company for a price agreed today with delivery occurring at a specified future date, the delivery date. The contracts are traded on a futures exchange. The party agreeing to take delivery of the underlying stock in the future, the "buyer" of the contract, is said to be "long", and the party agreeing to deliver the stock in the future, the "seller" of the contract, is said to be "short". The terminology reflects the expectations of the parties - the buyer hopes or expects that the stock price is going to increase, while the seller hopes or expects that it will decrease. Note that the contract itself costs nothing to enter; the buy/sell terminology is a linguistic convenience reflecting the position each party is taking?
Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, established in 1990, is a futures exchange in Zhengzhou, one of the four futures exchanges in China. The ZCE is under the vertical management of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
The Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) is a Chinese futures exchange based in Dalian, Liaoning province, China. It is a non-profit, self-regulating and membership legal entity established on February 28, 1993.
A commodity broker is a firm or an individual who executes orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of the clients and charges them a commission. A firm or individual who trades for his own account is called a trader. Commodity contracts include futures, options, and similar financial derivatives. Clients who trade commodity contracts are either hedgers using the derivatives markets to manage risk, or speculators who are willing to assume that risk from hedgers in hopes of a profit.
Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) is an independent commodity exchange based in India. It was established in 2003 and is based in Mumbai. It is India's largest commodity derivatives exchange where the clearance and settlements of the exchange happen and the turnover of the exchange for the quarter ended September 2018 was 1.78 billion rupees. MCX offers options trading in gold and futures trading in non-ferrous metals, bullion, energy, and a number of agricultural commodities.
Fish Pool is an international commodity exchange located in Bergen, Norway that trades salmon futures contracts. The exchange is 97% owned by the stock exchange in Norway Oslo Børs. Trading at Fish Pool commenced in May 2006. The volumes traded at the exchange represent approximately 10-15% of the annual production of farmed Atlantic salmon in Norway.
LCH is a British clearing house that serves major international exchanges, as well as a range of OTC markets. Based on 2012 figures LCH cleared approximately 50% of the global interest rate swap market, and is the second largest clearer of bonds and repos in the world, providing services across 13 government debt markets. In addition, LCH clears a broad range of asset classes including: commodities, securities, exchange traded derivatives, credit default swaps, energy contracts, freight derivatives, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange and Euro and Sterling denominated bonds and repos.
The international shipping industry can be divided into four closely related shipping markets, each trading in a different commodity: the freight market, the sale and purchase market, the newbuilding market and the demolition market. These four markets are linked by cash flow and push the market traders in the direction they want.
David Munro Anderson is a Scottish businessman with a distinguished career in the City of London. He was closely involved in the development of the futures contract trading industry in London. Anderson was chairman of the formation committee for the International Petroleum Exchange, joint chairman of the formation committee for the Baltic International Freight Futures Exchange and former vice-chairman of the London Commodity Exchange. As a director of the Securities and Investments Board (SIB) he played a key role in implementating the Financial Services Act 1986 in the United Kingdom.
