Commodity futures are generally traded before their expiration date.

Successful commodity futures exchanges now operate across the developing world.

Recent initiatives by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission point in the right direction.

Economists generally consider commodity futures to be the solution to higher price volatility, not its cause.

Commodity futures are formal agreements to buy or sell a specified amount of a commodity at a specified future date for a specified price.

An alternative for some commodity exporters is to hedge their risk by selling on the futures market.

But their presence has also raised concerns that speculation in commodity futures could result in higher price volatility.

They argue that traders of commodity futures merely react to price signals that ultimately depend on market fundamentals.

But history is not destined to repeat itself, and leaders of commodity rich countries are seeking alternative futures.

Furthermore, ample worldwide liquidity and the rise of other commodity prices induced market speculators to buy into oil futures.

Such measures will contribute to shaping a more stable market environment and ensure that commodity futures reduce risks and volatility.

Some believe that the crisis was amplified by speculative trading in commodity futures, which have become an integral part of food markets.

Until this month, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission had been at odds with Barnier over the territorial scope of US derivatives rules.

Synthetic securities need to be similarly regulated, although the task could be assigned to a different authority, such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Given the important role that commodity futures play for many market participants, regulatory measures should aim at enhancing confidence in the functioning of the market.

Europe s Two Futures

America s Opposing Futures

Two Energy Futures

Global Futures Network

futures UNU INRA

This is more prevalent in the US, where regulators salaries are very low, especially in the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In fact, commodity futures have become increasingly appealing to non commercial investors, as their returns seem to be negatively correlated with returns on equities and bonds.

Many Russian futures are possible.

What do futures sacrifice for success?

People to see, futures to make.

From a substantive viewpoint, these involved emphasizing, on the one hand, issues concerning risk management and futures markets, as a means to improving the functioning of commodity markets and on the other, issues of sustainable development and the relationship between commodity production and trade and the environment.

Although index fund investments are important compared to the positions of other futures participants, their behavior is predictable, as they publicly announce both their commodity portfolio and the timing of their transactions

Sustainable environment and energy futures (UNU centre)

At a recent Commodity Futures Trading Commission roundtable, the banking sector representative sitting next to me cited a paper by a prominent Stanford University finance professor to support his position against a particular regulation.

The S amp P 500 futures went down.

Recycling commodity revenue and managing macro level commodity related risks

Has anybody here made a profit in futures trading?

Our young people look forward to bright, successful futures.

This defines the imagined futures of our fellow Hungarians

Recast survivors as wonderful, lovable people with full futures.

For many years we have been campaigning for housing futures, but no exchange wanted to use such indices to create a futures market until now.

Because seeds, in all their diverse glory, are plants' futures.

We were able to ensure brighter futures for these people.

To be sure, the budget crisis in the US caused most stock futures to decline on that day. But, if the ministry s view of the consumption tax was correct, Nikkei futures would have gained more or at least lost less than futures in other countries.

Differences of opinion between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had obstructed effective oversight of investment banks and derivatives trading (only the US believes that it makes sense to regulate securities and derivatives separately).

What they need is a chance to shape their own futures.

Commodity prices fell, too.

Latin America s Commodity Windfall

Commodity information reducing asymmetries

Commodity prices d (percentage)