How Commodity Trading Differs from Stock Trading
There are major differences between trading stocks and trading
futures. While stories of fortunes made or lost overnight on the futures markets are largely untrue, the futures trader, if using a sound trading system, can usually make more money on the futures market and make it much faster.
Commodity Trading Involves Some Risk With Big Rewards
Commodity trading is the buying and selling of contracts of items that we use everyday. It is the trading of primary or raw products. Some of the items traded in the commodities market include such common, everyday items as: soy beans, cotton, orange juice, cocoa, sugar, wheat, corn, barley, pork bellies, milk, feedstuffs, fruits, vegetables, other grains, other beans, hay, other livestock, meats, poultry, and eggs. Energy items that are traded on the commodity markets include oil, natural gas, electricity, and gasoline. The commodity speculators in the energy market were blamed for the recent price increase in the cost of gasoline at the pump.
The Role Of A CTA, Commodity Trading Advisor
Commodity Trading Advisor, Genuine Trading Solutions, a registered CTA with the CFTC, says the role today of a CTA is constantly evolving.
Commodity Trading - Advantages and Disadvantages
What Is Commodity Trading?Commodity futures markets allow commercial producers and commercial consumers to offset the risk of adverse future price movements in the commodities that they are selling or buying.In order to work a futures contract must be standardised.
How To Make Money With Commodity Trading
Since the advent of the internet commodity trading has grown by leaps and bounds and just about anybody with a computer and a few spare dollars can get into the market. Here's how to make money with commodity trading.
SunGard Acquires ICE Risk Solution
SunGard has acquired the ICE Risk commodity trading solution from IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE). ICE Risk is a real-time position-keeping and risk management system that captures and values exchange-traded and cleared products across multiple trading venues.
Announcing Managed Futures with Foss Mountain Capital: Help for High Net Worth Investors to Position Their Investment Portfolios in Today's Volat
Foss Mountain Capital breaks down the details of a managed futures account and outlines the benefits therein. They also explain the due diligence process of manager search and selection.
How To Get Started With Commodity Training
Commodity trading is an exciting investing opportunity that was once limited to brokers but that thanks to the internet anyone can play in. Here's how to get started with commodity trading.
Commodity Traders Asked to Pay Attention to Grain and Exotic Commodity Sectors
The grain futures and food futures may be poised to lead the commodity markets higher into the Spring and early Summer of next year.
Enron Commodity Trading was Not Original
If one were to go an annual report for El Paso Energy from 2000; they would find on page 11 of the shareholders report a picture of their 80,000 square foot trading floor, with 700 merchant staff. Enron many thought had in fact originated this; once upon a time claiming to be the largest in the world energy trading floor.
Leverage and Commodities Trading - The Basic Terminology
Commodities trading, like any other commodity trading, utilize a principle called "leverage" to expand the reach of the investor Much like mechanical leverage in your old physics class, financial leverage is about multiplying the amount of motion you get from the energy you put into a transaction
What You Should Look For In An Effective Commodity Trading System
Does your trading story read like mine? The first 12 - 15 years, when I traded, I eagerly digested all the books I could lay my hands on. I went to day trading courses, tutorials and lectures and bought software packages to help devise a unique trading system of my own.
Online Commodity Trading
With the threat of recession looming large, GDP growth looking anemic and inflation is touching new height every fortnight, should you consider investing your hard earned cash into the stock market? Or more importantly, is trading a wise choice considering such a stormy climate? If you looking for a new way of investment, look no further than online commodity trading and you can earn rich rewards depending on your investment, knowledge, risk taking ability amongst other things.
Free Tips on Investing in a Commodity Bull Market
Learn how to buy in on the inevitable price declines in the long term commodity bull market.
BCM Launches CTA Database For Managed Futures Investors
Balarie Capital Management recently announced that they have launched a free CTA database that tracks several hundred Commodity Trading Advisors. The CTA database allows individual and institutional investors (family offices, endowments, pensions) to view performance data on several hundred different Commodity Trading Advisors from all over the globe. Each CTA program contains 2 full pages of performance results, statistical data, and comparison analysis. In addition, database subscribers can search for specific managers based on specific criteria or combine managers to create their own custom portfolios.
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Market Risk - Not To Be Ignored or Overlooked
The first of a two part article&. Fund managers, whether they be equity or bond traders, know all too well that returns are not simply a result of their asset selection prowess. Many external factors come into play. But what are the issues facing the professional money manager.
Commodity Trading Advisor, Genuine Trading Solutions of Toronto, find not all fund managers analyze their market risk. The company explains this is often due to a lack of education and a failure to understand the mitigating solutions for off-setting risk.
Genuine Trading Solutions President, Dwayne Strocen explains market risk as the unexpected financial loss following a market decline due to events out of your control. He goes on to explain that stock or bond market volatility or market reversals can be the result of global events happening in far flung corners of the globe. Top analysts and fund managers simply do not have the resources to crystal ball gaze and predict those events.
Examples of several major unexpected events that sent shock waves throughout the financial community have been:
- 1982 Mexican Peso devaluation; - 1987 stock market crash knows as Black Monday ; - 1989 USA Savings and Loan Crisis; - 1998 Russian Ruble devaluation; - 1998 $125 billion collapse of Hedge Fund Long Term Capital Management; - 2006 collapse of Hedge Fund Amaranth with losses of $5.85 billion.
In 1994 Bank J.P. Morgan developed a risk metrics model known as Value-At-Risk or VaR. While VaR is considered the industry standard of risk measurement, it has its drawbacks. VaR can measure total dollar value of a funds risk exposure within a certain level of confidence, usually 95% or 99%. What it cannot do, is predict when a triggering event will occur or the magnitude of the subsequent fallout. For some company's and funds, a steep decline or protracted recession can be devastating. Even forcing some un-hedged firms into bankruptcy. A triggering event can have a ripple effect forcing people out of work and economies into recession effectively putting more people out of work. No person and no economy is immune.
If you own a mutual fund, chances are your fund is un-hedged. Until recently, mutual fund legislation prevented mutual funds from hedging. Many jurisdictions have repealed this rule however mutual fund managers have been slow or decided to continue with business as usual . The reason is that most investors of mutual funds are unsophisticated and do not understand the hedging process and may re-deem their money from an investment strategy they do not understand.
Hedge funds on the other hand do not have these restraints. Investors are more sophisticated and are more open to the nature of hedge fund strategies. Some of which are not disclosed due to a fear of piracy by competing hedge fund managers.
Risk reduction solutions are not complicated but do require the services of a professional who understands the process. This is the role of Commodity Trading Advisor firms such as Genuine Trading Solutions, also known as a CTA. President, Dwayne Strocen states that while most CTA's are hedge fund managers, few specialize in risk management analytics. Our focus is on the analysis of solutions to reduce or eliminate market and / or operational risk. No matter the role, all Commodity Trading Advisors are specialists in the derivatives market.
The first step is the value at risk calculation to determine a funds risk liability. A risk mitigation strategy known as a hedge is then implemented. After all, identification of one's risk is only beneficial if a solution to off-set that risk is put into place. Hedging requires the use of derivatives, either exchange traded or over-the-counter. They can take many forms. The most commonly used hedging instruments are index futures, interest rate futures, foreign exchange, exchange traded commodities such as Crude Oil, options and SWAPS.
A more detailed explanation of derivatives and hedging will be discussed in our next article. Now that we've identified an easy solution for your market risk worries, the implementation of the right strategy can be as easy as a call to a qualified and registered Commodity Trading Advisor.
Dwayne Strocen is a registered Commodity Trading Advisor specializing in analyzing and hedging Market and Operational risk. Website: http://www.genuinecta.com
View more information about Risk Management http://www.genuinecta.com/Risk_Management_And_Market_Risk.htm and Foreign Exchange Trading http://www.genuinecta.com/Foreign_Exchange_FX_Investing.htm
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