Lets compare two alternatives. 1. You sell 8 times 100 lots in soybens futures. 800 lots and about 57MUSD risk exposure. eg K futures. 2. Different combinations of spread trading 8 times 100 lots in soybeans. 800 lots and approx. 4,5MUSD risk exposure depending what combinations you make. So, the question here is that this option 1. is so called flat position ag long physical beans. Exposure is 57MUSD if you sell just eg. K future. But the combinations of spreads trades are tackling less exposure than option 1. bcos of margin requirements and maintenance fee. In my understanding the overall comparison is difficult bcos option 2. do not protect you if short curve collapse ie. short end of the curve decline. This comparison, is plainly just weighing the total exposure ag each other in risk management point of view. I think that you cannot actually compare these two alternatives. So how do you adjust spread position to equal the option 1. ?
If you are hedging. You do not trade spreads. Example- you have exposure of 25K bushels of soy beans. Then you need to use 5 future contracts on beans. If you do a spread you will add risk to the "cash" position and will not be hedging and you will be speculating.