The CME has been trading shots with ICE in their increasingly high-stakes competition over the futures market for quite a while. But one of last year’s moves – when ICE’s expanded online trading hours spurred the CME to follow suit – is now set to reverse course.
Category: Markets
06
Mar
2013
05
Mar
2013
Why Speculation Isn’t Pushing Gas Prices Higher
RBOB gasoline futures have been on an impressive rally since early December. Of course, this has translated into higher prices at gas stations, and when the price of a commodity has a visible, negative impact on ordinary people, the speculator-bashers start coming out of the woodwork, right on cue. We’ve tackled this in the past, but this time we found someone else with a great takedown.
01
Mar
2013
Long-Only Commodity ETFs vs Futures- February 2013
February is finished, which means we have a new month of data in our regular series examining long-only commodity ETFs, and comparing their performance to the December-dated futures contracts. You’ll notice that this time around, two of the ETFs seem to have the advantage. What’s going on? Well, this is something we’ve run into before, and there are a couple of factors at work.
26
Feb
2013
An Ag Market Reminder on the Benefits of Futures
We’re used to defending the futures industry whenever politicians start scapegoating “greedy speculators.” But even when they’re not the focus of ill-informed attacks, the futures industry is helping to keep markets – agriculture and otherwise – running smoothly.
25
Feb
2013
Italy Goes Greek, Markets Go Haywire
We were having flashbacks to last summer today as Italy’s election results rolled in and markets started going haywire. Is this the start of another round of Euro-crisis risk on/risk off markets? And if so, what might that mean for managed futures?
21
Feb
2013
There’s Something About Dairy
When it comes to commodity markets being threatened by the latest fiscal crisis in Washington, dairy futures always seem to be front and center. A few months ago it was the “Dairy Cliff” coinciding with the fiscal cliff. This time around, with the sequestration looming, dairy (along with cattle and hogs) may be facing disruptions again.
21
Feb
2013
Kicking Gold While It’s Down
Just two days ago we published a post pointing out that the decline in gold prices had caused the biggest gold ETF, the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) to fall below its 100-week moving average for only the 2nd time since 2004. But after seeing the “death cross” chart pattern yesterday, the financial web has exploded with pessimism for gold.
19
Feb
2013
Bye Bye Gold?
Gold has been on the decline over the last few months, and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) ETF has been tumbling right alongside. But last week, a significant milestone in the decline was reached: GLD dipped below its 100-week moving average. And our look at GLD’s track record yielded some surprising insights.
14
Feb
2013
Corn Goes Streaking
After posting 8 consecutive days trending upward last month, corn futures are on track to post a 10th consecutive day of losses this month. We dove into the history of corn prices to see what how the market has responded to past streaks.
12
Feb
2013
Keeping the Yen in Perspective
This morning the financial world was briefly abuzz over a strange (mis)communication from the G7, which initially seemed bland, but was later clarified as criticism of Japan’s efforts to devalue the Yen. As the Yen briefly went wild, we were reminded yet again of why we are fans of systematic trend following.
