In the Fall of 2011, futures market participants were caught off-guard when MF Global filed for bankruptcy. Essentially, this episode educated industry participants that customer protections in the U.S. commodity futures markets had been more ambiguous than expected. That said, there are a...

This article covers the trading blowups at the hedge fund, Amaranth, and at the Futures Commission Merchant, MF Global. Although the lessons from the Amaranth blowup can best be understood in terms of market-risk principles, the lessons from the MF Global bankruptcy are best understood in terms...

On June 25th, 2007, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on the Amaranth debacle, entitled, “Excessive Speculation in the Natural Gas Market.” The report was released in conjunction with the subcommittee's public hearing on the same date. The 135-page...

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...

This paper discusses intelligent risk-management techniques and new product innovation in the commodity futures markets. First, though, it reviews the century-plus debate on the role of commodity speculators, given the prevalent concerns that this activity may have a destabilizing impact on...

On September 18th, 2006, market participants were made aware of a large hedge fund's distress. On that date, Nick Maounis, the founder of Amaranth Advisors, LLC, had issued a letter to his investors, informing them that the fund had lost an estimated 50% of their assets month-to-date. By the end...

This paper reviews both the theory and empirical evidence regarding how commodity futures market work, including the role of the speculator. The paper also discusses how difficult it is to apportion causality for commodity price spikes when inventories-relative-to-consumption become sufficiently...

Food price volatility has spiked to levels last seen in the 1970s. For low-income countries, food price hikes, such as have occurred recently, tend to significantly increase the incidence of intra-state conflicts, according to IMF research. The 2007-2008 food crisis, and the resumption of more...

In U.S. dollar terms, crude oil prices increased 525% from the end-of-2001 through July 31st, 2008. Was this rally yet another speculative bubble? Specifically, has the oil rally been based on speculative excess rather than fundamental supply-and-demand factors? In summary, this paper argues...

Market participants have an obligation to periodically explain the economic role of futures trading and the role of speculators in these markets. This will be the main task of this paper. In addition, this paper will discuss two other challenges in the commodity markets: the impact of the Risk...