Yes, I know it was about hogs, but the article left me, a newbie to futures, befuddled, as if, say, coffee, like hogs, was selling higher in the front month than the later month, why not just short the higher priced contract and go long the lesser priced on and capture the spread? I must be missing something here. Help appreciated.
Yes. Why do you want the spread to narrow before the front month expiry( you have nothing to deliver )?
http://blogs.wsj.com/totalreturn/2014/07/16/commodity-etfs-get-a-performance-boost-this-year/ article is from yesterday's wsj.
This video may be helpful.... https://www.khanacademy.org/economi...contracts/v/contango-and-backwardation-review
1) With hogs and cattle, the "appearance" of contango/backwardation is not the same as it is for other markets. 2) Livestock should be thought of as being a "biological" commodity and not physical nor financial where storage of the commodity can go on for a "long" time. 3) With the passage of time, livestock get fatter and the quality of their meat diminishes to the point where the animals are no longer eligible for delivery at the CME. 4) You can engage in bull or bear spreads in different calendar months of a commodity but the risk is higher with livestock, more so with hogs than cattle, compared to physicals and financials. Livestock spreads have a much higher chance of diverging than moving in sync. :eek: