27 terms
Grains, softs and livestock
- Basis
- The difference between the local cash price of a commodity and the futures price used to hedge it.
- Bushel
- The volume unit US grain futures are written on, standardised by weight per crop: 56 pounds for corn, 60 for wheat and soybeans, 32 for oats.
- Cattle crush spread
- Long feeder cattle and corn against short live cattle, replicating the margin a feedlot earns turning calves and grain into finished beef.
- Cattle on Feed report
- The USDA's monthly count of cattle in US feedlots plus placements and marketings, released on a Friday afternoon and the main scheduled event in cattle futures.
- CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade)
- The oldest US futures exchange, founded in 1848 and now a CME Group division listing grains and Treasury futures.
- Cocoa futures (CC)
- ICE contracts on 10 metric tonnes of cocoa beans, quoted in US dollars per tonne, with a $1 tick worth $10.
- Coffee futures (KC)
- ICE contracts on 37,500 pounds of washed arabica coffee, quoted in cents per pound, with a tick of 0.05 cents worth $18.75.
- Commercial trader
- A COT category for firms that handle the physical commodity and use futures to hedge it — farmers, elevators, refiners, miners, processors and end users.
- Corn futures (ZC)
- CBOT contracts on 5,000 bushels of number 2 yellow corn, the highest-volume agricultural futures market in the world.
- Cotton futures (CT)
- ICE contracts on 50,000 pounds of upland cotton, quoted in cents per pound with a 0.01-cent tick worth $5.
- Crop year
- The twelve-month accounting period for a commodity's supply and demand, running from one harvest to the next — 1 September to 31 August for US corn and soybeans.
- Crush spread (soybean crush)
- Long soybeans against short soybean meal and oil, or the reverse, replicating the processing margin of a soybean crushing plant.
- Expanded limits
- A widened daily price limit that takes effect the session after a market settles at limit, letting price find its level.
- Feeder cattle futures (GF)
- CME contracts on 50,000 pounds of weaned calves, cash settled to an index of auction prices rather than physically delivered.
- Frozen concentrated orange juice futures (OJ)
- ICE contracts on 15,000 pounds of frozen concentrated orange juice solids, a small, thin market driven almost entirely by Florida and Brazilian weather and disease.
- Hard red winter wheat futures (KE)
- The higher-protein wheat contract originally from the Kansas City Board of Trade, now listed on CME, traded against Chicago soft red winter wheat as a protein spread.
- Lean hog futures (HE)
- CME contracts on 40,000 pounds of lean hog carcass value, cash settled against a USDA index of pork carcass prices.
- Live cattle futures (LE)
- CME contracts on 40,000 pounds of finished steers, quoted in cents per hundredweight, physically delivered from approved feedlots.
- Prospective Plantings report
- The USDA's end-of-March survey of what farmers intend to plant, which sets the supply expectations the new-crop contracts trade against all summer.
- Seasonality (commodity)
- The recurring annual pattern in a commodity's supply, demand and price, driven by harvests, weather, heating and cooling cycles and driving seasons.
- Short hedge
- Selling futures to protect against a fall in the price of something you own or will produce.
- Soybean futures (ZS)
- CBOT contracts on 5,000 bushels of number 2 yellow soybeans, the anchor of the crush complex and the most China-sensitive US agricultural market.
- Soybean meal futures (ZM)
- CBOT contracts on 100 short tons of soybean meal, the protein feed that is the larger share of the crushing margin by value.
- Soybean oil futures (ZL)
- CBOT contracts on 60,000 pounds of crude soybean oil, quoted in cents per pound, increasingly driven by renewable diesel policy rather than food demand.
- Sugar futures (SB)
- ICE contracts on 112,000 pounds of raw cane sugar for export, quoted in cents per pound with a 0.01-cent tick worth $11.20.
- WASDE report
- The USDA's monthly balance sheet for major crops, published around midday on the 9th to 12th, and the single largest scheduled event in agricultural futures.
- Wheat futures (ZW)
- CBOT contracts on 5,000 bushels of soft red winter wheat, the most internationally sensitive of the US grain contracts.
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