Futures commodity trading basics

Many people see pictures of the large crowd of traders standing in a crowd yelling and signaling with their hands, holding pieces of paper, and writing frantically. To the outsider, it looks like chaos. But do you really think that there’s chaos going on in the world’s futures pits?

Actually, everyone in the crowd knows exactly what’s happening. It’s almost like another language. Learn that language and you’ll also know what is going on.

How does this differ from the way things operated in the ‘old days’? Before there were organized grain and commodity markets, farmers would bring their harvested crops to major population centers. There they would search for buyers. There were no storage facilities; and many times the harvest would rot before buyers were found.

Also, because many farmers would bring their crops to market at the same time, the price of the crops or commodities would be driven down. There was tremendous supply in relation to demand. The reverse was true in the spring. Many times there would be a shortage of crops and commodities and the price would rise sharply. There was no organized or central marketplace where competitive bidding could take place.

Up until now, there wasn’t a way for people to easily place bids on commodities. Then, the market started using “forward contracts”, and these contracts were a forerunner to the commodity futures market we know today.

Current prices and bid amounts are electronically transmitted instantly, worldwide. It doesn’t really matter where the buyer or seller is, they will get the same general information that everybody else has.

Farmers, bankers, manufacturers, corporations, all have equal access. All they have to do is call their broker and arrange for the purchase or sale of a futures contract. The person who takes the opposite side of your trade may be a competitor who has a different outlook on the future price, it may be a floor broker, or it could be a speculator.