Commodity futures market

India has a long history of commodity futures trading, extending over 125 years. Still, such trading was interrupted suddenly since the mid seventies in the fond hope of ushering in an elusive socialistic pattern of society. As the country embarked on economic liberalization policies and signed the GATT agreement in the early nineties, the government realized the need for futures trading to strengthen the competitiveness of Indian agriculture and the commodity trade and industry. Futures trading began to be permitted in several commodities, and the ushering in of the 21-century saw the emergence of new National Commodity Exchanges with countrywide reach for trading in almost all primary commodities and their products.

A commodity futures contract is essentially a financial instrument. Following the absence of futures trading in commodities for nearly four decades, the new generation of commodity producers, processors, market functionaries, financial organizations, broking agencies and investors at large are, unfortunately, unaware at present of the economic utility, the operational techniques and the financial advantages of such trading.

[...] Profit Cotton futures price Loss Figure 5.4 Payoff for a seller of cotton futures USING COMMODITY FUTURES For a market to succeed, it must have all three kinds of participants - hedgers, speculators and arbitragers. The confluence of these participants ensures liquidity and efficient price discovery on the market. Commodity markets give opportunity for all three kinds of participants. In this chapter we look at the use of commodity derivatives for hedging, speculation and arbitrage. HEDGING: The primary purpose of futures markets is to provide an efficient and effective mechanism to manage price risk. [...]

[...] VISION AND MISSION: The vision of MCX is to revolutionize the Indian commodity markets by empowering the market participants through innovative product offerings and business rules so that the benefits of futures markets can be fully realized. Offering 'unparalleled efficiencies', 'unlimited growth' and 'infinite opportunities' to all the market participants. EXCHANGE OF CHOICE: At MCX we believe that performance excellence and affordability would be the key drivers in promoting and popularizing Commodities Futures trading in the country. Exchanges in the new economy will be driven by strong service availability backed by superior technology and MCX is well poised to emerge as the "Exchange of Choice" for the commodity futures trading community. [...]

[...] Following the absence of futures trading in commodities for nearly four decades, the new generation of commodity producers, processors, market functionaries, financial organizations, broking agencies and investors at large are, unfortunately, unaware at present of the economic utility, the operational techniques and the financial advantages of such trading, there is essential need to study the tone of the commodity markets in India. TRADING METHODOLOGY: Trading in an inter connected market would permit members of one exchange to trade directly with the member of another participating exchange. [...]

[...] COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING CYCLE: NCDEX trades commodity futures contracts having one-month, two-month and three-month expiry cycles. All contracts expire on the 20th of the expiry month. Thus a January expiration contract would expire on the 20th of January and a February expiry contract would cease trading on the 20th of February. If the 20th of the expiry month is a trading holiday, the contracts shall expire on the previous trading day. New contracts will be introduced on the trading day following the expiry of the near month contract. [...]

[...] While at the moment only commodity futures trade on the NCDEX, eventually, as the market grows, we also have commodity options being traded. FORWARD CONTRACTS: A forward contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset on a specified date for a specified price. One of the parties to the contract assumes a long position and agrees to buy the underlying asset on a certain specified future date for a certain specified price. The other party assumes a short position and agrees to sell the asset on the same date for the same price. [...]