Assuming you are trading US products, delivery is at specified US locations. For grains, it is at specified locations from Chicago to points on the Illinois river. For livestock, live cattle can be delivered to points from the Southern Plains through the Northern Plains. Lean hogs and feeder cattle are cash settled to an index of cash (spot) prices. Anyone can deliver or take delivery. A miniscule number of contracts are ever delivered. Assuming someone requests delivery, from First Notice Day through the delivery period a delivery tender will be issued. You can re-tender this during the next trading session for no delivery. Assuming you are a normal speculative trader, you will likely be trading the next contract (following open interest) by the time the delivery period opens up so this should not be an issue. For grains, keep in mind they mostly trade grain fundamentals. Those are temporarily put aside during "outside market" problems (EU debt etc). We are wrapping up an "outside market" led correction right now. Livestock generally ignore these outside market issues and do a great job in trading livestock based fundamentals. If you truly want to trade ag markets from a fundamental viewpoint, there will be a longer learning curve. As to spot prices, http:\\www.ams.usda.gov. - Livestock and Grain Market News Portal - Run a Custom Report. I will direct you to which exact reports to monitor for grains or each livestock species if you want. As to the comments about Goldman Sachs or other Wall Street money in commodities, don't worry about them. They are discussed in the industry but their commodity research is not respected. Pay attention to the market and follow your own guidelines. Good luck.