Producers’ preferences for round number prices

The purpose of this study was to determine if a preference for round prices exists in the wheat market and how wheat sales react to price movements around whole-dollar amounts. The results show round prices are slightly more prevalent than non round prices, and transactions increase when price moves above a whole-dollar amount. While such predictable behavior could be exploited by speculators in other markets, the effect is not large enough to merit concern in the market studied here.