The commodity market structure has changed at an incredible pace in the last 20 years and is now subject to intense scrutiny by academics and policy-makers. Taking a long-term view of price formation, empirical findings show that international trade and finance, mostly driven by emerging markets...

This paper investigates the trading behavior of major market participants during an attempted delivery squeeze in a bond futures contract traded in London. Using the cash and futures trades of dealers and customers, we analyze their strategic trading behavior, price distortion and learning in a...

People dislike inflation because inflation erodes the real value of future nominal income and wealth. Adjustment of future nominal values via a cost of living index is an appropriate way to handle the problem of real income risk. Nonetheless an important aspect needs more discussion: If markets...

We reconsider the issue of price discovery in spot and futures markets. We use a threshold error correction model to allow for arbitrage opportunities to have an impact on the return dynamics. We estimate the model using quote midpoints, and we modify the model to account for time-varying...

This paper considers the dynamics of spot and futures prices in the presence of arbitrage. A partially linear error correction model is proposed where the adjustment coefficient is allowed to depend non-linearly on the lagged price difference. The model is estimated using data on the DAX index...

The S&P 500 Index futures contract is traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that isregulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The S&P 500 Index optionscontract is traded on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange that is regulated by theSecurities and Exchange Commission. The...

A recent outbreak of bird flu or avian influenza (AI), an especially highly pathogenicstrain (HPAI) of H5N1, started in Hong Kong in January 2003 and caused 159 humandeaths in Asia, Africa and Europe through early 2007. In addition, this outbreak resultedin millions of slaughtered birds and...

In a seminal article, Samuelson (1965) proposes the maturity effect that volatility of futures prices should increase as futures contract approaches maturity. This study provides new evidence on the maturity effect by examining a more extensive set of futures contracts than previous studies and...

The first chapter of this dissertation examines the returns to frequent acquirers fromemerging markets and analyzes the cross-country variations in cumulative abnormal returns.The sample consists of 5,147 transactions carried out by firms from 17 common and civil-lawcountries during the period...

This article explores nonlinearities in the response of speculators' trading activity to price changes in live cattle, corn, and lean hog futures markets. Analyzing weekly data from March 4, 1997 to December 27, 2005, we reject linearity in all of these markets. Using smooth transition...