This note draws an analogy between deviations from no-arbitrage forward-spot relationships in currency and in commodity markets. The key is to notice that the U.S. dollar acts as a commodity in foreign exchange (FX) markets. In the physical commodity space, if the spot price is too high relative...

The last decade brought substantial increased participation in commodity markets by index funds that maintain long positions in the near futures contracts. Policy makers and academic studies have reached sharply different conclusions about the effects of these funds on commodity futures prices....

If commercial producers or financial investors use futures contracts to hedge against commodity price risk, the arbitrageurs who take the other side of the contracts may receive compensation for their assumption of nondiversifiable risk in the form of positive expected returns from their...