This collection of articles covers the commodity derivatives markets from a broadly conceptual perspective. Specifically, this set of articles reviews (a) the potentially persistent sources of return in the commodity futures markets; (b) the differing risk-management priorities for commercial...

Should an investor enter into long-term positions in oil futures contracts? In answering this question, this paper will cover the following three considerations: (1) the case for structural positions in crude oil futures contracts; (2) useful indicators for avoiding crash risk; and (3) financial...

This paper will argue that one can intelligently invest in the commodity markets and will briefly touch on three approaches, which in turn are drawn from “Intelligent Commodity Investing” (Risk Books, 2007). The first two sections of this paper will discuss two historically profitable...

Given the generally observed mean-reverting nature of spot commodity prices, it should naturally follow that across time, roll yields (and therefore, backwardation) have to be the dominant explanatory variable for individual futures contract returns over long enough time horizons. In this paper,...

Broadly speaking, there are seven strands of literature on commodity pricing theory, which we summarize as follows: The insurance role of commodity futures contracts, which emphasizes the role of the speculator; the theory of storage, which emphasizes the behavior of the inventory holder and...

In this paper, we introduce readers to commodity (natural resource) futures programs. We begin by describing the present investment landscape as one where return compression in a number of popular hedge fund strategies has led absolute-return investors to investigate other promising return...

Until recently, one could only gain expertise in commodity-derivatives relationships if one had worked in niche commodity-processor companies or in banks that specialized in hedging project risk for natural-resource companies. The contribution of this paper is to help fill the knowledge gap in...

The paper discusses the practical issues involved in applying a disciplined risk management methodology to futures trading. Specifically, the paper shows how to apply methodologies derived from both conventional asset management and hedge fund management to futures trading as well as discussing...