LONDON (Dow Jones)--European Union and world-wide lawmakers must curb purely speculative trading in raw foodstuffs, or at least publicly disclose such trades for the benefit of all market participants, a German confectionary association said Wednesday. Dietmar Kendziur, chairman of the Association of the German Confectionery Industry, or BDSI, said, "Raw material prices for foods are being increasingly determined by the financial market and not by supply and demand. If the key pricing factors are not crop yield expectations on the one hand and demand and consumer behavior on the other, then free and fair market mechanisms are thrown off balance." The BDSI said the most recent sign of speculative interference occurred over the summer on the London commodity futures exchange NYSE Liffe, a unit of NYSE Euronext (NYX). Liffe cocoa prices surged over the summer amid concerns over speculation, prompting a group of 16 European cocoa-trading companies and associations to write a letter to NYSE Euronext urging greater regulation. NYSE Euronext said it found no abusive behavior in the cocoa futures market and has since taken steps to improve transparency. "Speculative transactions by banks and funds serving purely financial interests in raw foodstuffs such as cocoa and wheat should be restricted as far as possible or must at least be publicly disclosed," the BDSI said.
I agree. Speculation/profiteering in basic foodstuffs ought to be illegal. Just because some asshole billionaire in US or China can afford to buy millions of kilos of sugar/rice/cocoa, etc, at the cost of some poor people dying of hunger in some other countries, should not give them the right to do so. These greedy exchanges with all these bs contracts/etf's for everything ought to be better regulated or their "products" flat-out abolished! These commodities ETF's and other agricultural derivatives are worlwide now. They should be banned.
I'm also sick of oil prices being manipulated, stock prices being manipulated, gold prices being manipulated, the price of hookers being manipulated, yada yada yada. In fact, let's just do away with liquidity and the market altogether! *Rolls eyes*
it's called market collusion or price fixing. it's illegal. basically it's like putting shill bids in auction to jack up the price but no intention of taking delivery. in some countries it's enforce depends on the country and who is doing the market manipulation.
So very fucking predictable. You clearly cannot differentiate between a valid argument and some 10 year old cliche's about market manipulation. Nor can you see the difference between a bubble in financial assets like stocks vs the serious (life or death) problems when those financial bubbles move into raw foodstuffs. What else can I expect from a collosal fucking idiot like yourself who thinks that we should all commit financial suicide to avoid "deflation".
That's bullshit. When some greedy dipshit buys $1billion of GE or MSFT, there's very few consequences other than perhaps liquidity when exiting the trade. If the same fool decides to buy $1 billion of the rice or wheat ETF, somebody, somewhere will die of hunger. What if it were you or your kid??? Greedy/stupid assholes like you are fucking up the markets.
I'm all confused... Aren't we all traders here? As traders, aren't we supposed to love free unfettered mkts which are the true engines of capitalism? Aren't we constantly clamoring for less govt intervention and regulation in mkts? Or does the above apply to everything but foodstuffs? Moreover, who's gonna define a given mkt participant as a "speculator" and how?
Bullshit article. There can be no manipulation of prices without the cooperation, or a conspiracy, involving distributors who can manipulate demand and supply. When speculators are wrong, they lose money. This happens more than often. When they are correct, they assist the market in determining the best price so that demand balances supply. Speculators who do not take delivery are a zero-sum game. They neither store supply nor destroy it, nor creating physical demand. These people who blame speculators try to coverup other acts that are essential to driving the price to non-equilibrium levels and are point to scapegoats.
Well, answer your question. Some covert Marxists here they have never traded a single share in their life but their goal is to infiltrate and try to pass their idiotic views to others. It is called propaganda, good old propaganda that slowly errodes the public moral for free markets. This is how they work. But their statements defy common sense. If physical cocoa is in abundance, why should the price go up because some speculators decided to buy futures? If they are wrong, they will be punished hard by the market and price will plunge. Other things go on and these Marxist blame speculators who are essential for stability in the markets. In reality, stability in the markets rests on the existence of a good number of speculators. By attacking speculators, Marxists want to attack the heart of the system and turn it unstable. They will not succeed because they defy common sense. Marxism is the evil of society.