This is a comprehensive study of the growth and impact of agricultural futures market traders. The growth of financial investment in commodities has introduced participants and raised both new questions and warranted revisiting old questions; these include the impact on commodity prices, the...

Cointegration analysis is used to study the spot and futures price relationships for two storable commodities, corn and soybeans, and a nonstorable commodity, live hogs, over a 13-year period, 1980 to 1992. For corn and soybeans, cointegration is found in most pre-harvest contracts (July), and...

Firms always encounter risks in the process of production, distribution and marketing due to the structure of the firms, market conditions, or some unforeseen circumstances such as natural catastrophe. Instruments have been developed to help firms deal with such risks, and futures contracts are...

This study identifies the changes that have occurred in the world cocoa market, explains these changes and deduces implications for development policy. Supply of cocoa to the world market has increased and the world price of cocoa is decreasing. Cocoa is an important export commodity for...