Commodity Derivatives: Markets and Applications

Preface

Since the start of this century, the commodity markets have been the subject of much interest with reports in the media usually detailing that some commodity has reached a new all time price high. My motivation for writing the book, however, did not stem from this but rather the difficulty I had in finding people who could provide classroom training on the different products. Although many companies were able to provide training that described the physical market for each commodity, virtually no one provided training on over-the-counter (OTC) structures, which arguably comprise the greatest volumes in the market. As they say, if you want a job done properly.... While doing research for the courses I felt that much of the available documentation either had a very narrow focus, perhaps concentrating on just one product, or were general texts on trading commodity futures with little insight into the underlying markets. As a result, I have tried to write a book that documents in one place the main commodity markets and their associated derivatives.

Within each chapter, I have tried to keep the structure fairly uniform. Typically, there will be a short section explaining what the commodity is in non-technical terms. For those with a background in any one specific commodity, this may appear somewhat simplistic but is included to ensure that the financial reader has sufficient background to place the subsequent discussion within some context. Typical patterns of demand and supply ...