Le Borse Delle Merci [Commodity Exchanges]
Independent Review, No. 4, 2003
10 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2011
Date Written: October 31, 2011
Abstract
The article gives an overview of major commodity exchanges and exchanged products. Soft commodities, agriculturals, and hard commodities such as industrial and precious metals, are covered. The importance of quality and quantity standardizations is discussed, together with the differentiation between spot and forward markets, the latter in the double dimension of physical and derivatives markets, including Futures and Options. Price volatility gives opportunity for hedging and speculating on commodity exchanges and this article explains how this is achieved.
A section is devoted to exchanges specialized in energy products, i.e. crude oil, refined oil products, natural gas and electricity. Finally, main new trends are presented, including electronic marketplaces, new financial products, emission trading and a detailed explanation of weather derivatives.
Note: Downloadable document is in Italian.
Keywords: commodity, exchanges, soft commodities, energy products, NYMEX, IPE, crude oil, refined oil products, natural gas, electricity,emission trading, weather derivatives
JEL Classification: D49, O10
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation