For quite some time long-only index funds have been suspected of being responsible for price increases in agricultural futures markets. This suspicion has prompted demands to drastically limit long-only index funds' scope of activity. Such demands and their underlying diagnoses, however,...

Options trading is increasingly important in more volatile agricultural markets. Options allow for unilateral hedging of price risks, e. g. against falling prices only, and are an indispensable risk management instrument for farmers and grain dealers. Concerns that soaring options trading could...

Um es gleich vorweg zu nehmen, Warenterminmärkte dienen Landwirten und Landhändlern keineswegs, wie gemeinhin angenommen, primär zur Absicherung von Kassapreis- und Basisrisiko. Sie eröffnen vielmehr Einkommenschancen durch Lagerhaltung und gewährleisten deren Profitabilität. Die in der...

Auf volatileren Agrarmärkten gewinnt der Handel mit Optionen zunehmend an Bedeutung. Optionen gestatten die einseitige Absicherung von Preisrisiken, z. B. nur gegen fallende Preise, und stellen ein zunehmend bedeutenderes Instrument für das Risikomanagement von Landwirten und Landhändlern...

First things first-contrary to popular opinion, the main reason farmers and grain traders use futures markets is not to hedge spot price and basis risks, but to ensure the profitability of the storage business. The scientific literature mainly discusses the minimum variance hedge ratio, which...

The development over time of market integration between Chinese provinces is analyzed by estimating threshold vector error correction models for rolling windows during 1998-2003. Transaction costs clearly decrease during this period characterized by liberalization of external trade and domestic...