Poor convergence performance of CBOT corn, soybean, and wheat futures contracts since late 2005 has been a major source of concern to market participants, regulators, and elected representatives at the state and national levels. After careful review of available evidence, it appears that recent...

For grain and oilseed futures, deliveries facilitate convergence by allowing for arbitrage between the physical commodity and the “paper” (i.e., futures) markets. A sizeable literature has looked at deliveries to answer questions about price convergence and about the value of options...

The focus of this study was to learn more about a critical commodity market participant, the long term speculator. The speculator's activity broadens a market, creates essential liquidity, and performs an irreplaceable pricing function. Working knowledge of the profiles, motivations, and modes...