Category Archives: News

There are many different types of investment objectives that individuals and institutions may have when it comes to investing their capital. These objectives can range from short-term goals, such as generating income or capital appreciation in the near term, to long-term goals, such as saving for retirement or building wealth over a period of decades.Continue reading “Different Investment Objectives”

place and time of consumption. Hence, physical trade will always need to take place, either to bring it from location to location, and/or to bridge the timing gaps. Commodity trade finance is the financing of the physical trade (purchase and sale) in commodities. You may hear other financing terms used when discussing commodities. Below weContinue reading “Commodity Finance”

Why is financing commodities perceived to be risky? There are a number of risks inherent in commodities that can make financing them risky. E.g. High primary production risks Significant investments are required for energy and mining assets Agri commodity production is often subject to weather risks and diseases Commodity finance involves significant exposure due toContinue reading “Risks of Commodities”

What are commodities? Commodities can be defined as being typically mass-produced goods which are sold and delivered in bulk (exceptions may be precious or rare metals). They include raw materials, agricultural products, and are usually classified into 3 main categories: Agricultural (”Agri”) commodities are crops and animals produced or raised on farms or plantations. Most agriculturalContinue reading “Commodities”

In the chart below, the spot price is higher than future prices and has generated a downward sloping forward, or inverted, curve which is in backwardation. The futures forward curve may become backwardated in physically-delivered contracts because there may be a benefit to owning the physical material, such as keeping a production process running. ThisContinue reading “Backwardation”

When a market is in contango, the forward price of a futures contract is higher than the spot price. In the chart below, the spot price is lower than the futures price which has generated an upward sloping forward curve. This market is in contango – the futures contracts are trading at a premium toContinue reading “Contango”

Blockchain technology is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that is used to record transactions across a network of computers. It was first introduced as the underlying technology for Bitcoin, the first and most well-known cryptocurrency, but it has since been adopted for a wide range of other applications. One of the key benefits ofContinue reading “Emerging Blockchain Tech”

A forward contract is an agreement between two parties to conduct a transaction at a specified rate and on a specified future date. Often, they are used in the commodity or foreign exchange market to let companies hedge against future price changes. A forward contract is an agreement between two parties to conduct a transactionContinue reading “Forwards”

What are futures? Futures are a type of derivative contract agreement to buy or sell a specific commodity asset or security at a set future date for a set price. Futures contracts, or simply “futures,” are traded on futures exchanges like the CME Group and require a brokerage account that’s approved to trade futures. A futuresContinue reading “Futures”

A naked call, or uncovered call, is an aggressive, high-risk option strategy. It occurs when an investor sells or writes call options for which they don’t own the underlying security. The seller is betting that the underlying stock price will not increase before the call’s expiration date.  It is safer for traders to sell callsContinue reading “Naked Call”

Investing can be a good way to grow wealth over the long term, but it is important for average investors to be mindful of certain practices in order to make informed decisions and minimize risk. Here are some good investment practices for the average investor to consider: Overall, these are some good investment practices forContinue reading “Good Financial Practices”

What Is a Naked Put?  A naked put is an options strategy in which the investor writes, or sells,put options without holding a short position in the underlying. A naked put strategy is sometimes referred to as an “uncovered put” or a “short put” and the seller of an uncovered put is known as aContinue reading “Naked Put”

Investors who sell cash-secured puts generally are willing to buy the underlying shares of stock. Rather than buy the shares at the current price, however, they hope the put will be assigned and the shares will be purchased at a lower price. In return for receiving a premium, the seller of a put assumes theContinue reading “Cash Secured Put”

Due to lack of reporting requirements, there is no single, central database for aggregate performance analysis of hedge funds. Hedge funds that do report results and are included in a database may use the added recognition and legitimacy to attract new investors. This gives rise to a “self-selection bias,” since choosing to report results toContinue reading “Hedge Fund Biases”

When a hedge-fund manager reports its returns to any database, this is a purely voluntary decision—managers are not required to disclose its returns to any data provider or regulator, and are free to stop reporting at any time. Therefore, a number of biases may arise among hedge-fund returns databases that are not present in otherContinue reading “Hedge Fund Databases”