Can private standards bring about more sustainable production practices? This question is of interest to conscientious consumers, academics studying the effectiveness of private regulation, and corporate social responsibility practitioners alike. Grabs provides an answer by combining an impact evaluation of 1,900 farmers with rich qualitative evidence from the coffee sectors of Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. Identifying an institutional design dilemma that private sustainability standards encounter as they scale up, this book shows how this dilemma plays out in the coffee industry. It highlights how the erosion of price premiums and the adaptation to buyers' preferences have curtailed standards' effectiveness in promoting sustainable practices that create economic opportunity costs for farmers, such as agroforestry or agroecology. It also provides a voice for coffee producers and value chain members to explain why the current system is failing in its mission to provide environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and what changes are necessary to do better.

This book describes the history of gold as a financial instrument and discusses gold exchanges in the major markets. It also describes the history of the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society (CGSE), its current organizational structure and membership registration system. The book also includes the development and growth of the gold market in Hong Kong and the role played by CGSE in the growth of the Chinese gold market. It includes a brief description of the CGSE in the twenty-first century - its current role and what it may play in the future. The book explains factors that influence gold price and the mechanism of price formulation. It also describes the historic trends in the demand and supply of gold and the global inventory of gold, trends of the demand for investment holdings, jewelry manufacturing and industrial usage. The book also compares the movements in gold price with inflation and analyzes the data on how gold provides a hedge against inflation. It also examines and explains the relationship between gold and the US dollar (USD) and the correlation between dollar index (value of dollar against 16 major currencies) and gold price. It explores in depth on the relationship between gold price, output and inventories and major economic indices. This is a good reference for those interested in the comprehensive view of gold and its importance in the world economies.

What affects the supply of oil? How important is the weather in determining grain prices? Why has the price of copper skyrocketed? Following recent hikes in oil, gas, coppper and wheat prices, commodities have once again become a key issue for the investment community. In order to explain the issues that underpin this volatile market, Commodity Trade and Finance analyses the economics of key commodity groups, including energy, agriculture and metals. It examines the supply/demand fundamentals of several major and minor commodities, physical characteristics, production and consumption patterns, trade flows and pricing mechanisms. It also covers the main tools used to hedge price risk, such as futures, options and swaps.

Offering economic analysis and a wealth of information on a broad range of commodities including oil, oil products, gas, coal, iron and steel, aluminium, copper, grains, coffee, sugar, cocoa, forest products and rubber, this book is an indispensable reference text for both students of the subject and those working in the commodity business.

Fund Custody and Administration provides an overall perspective of investment funds without limiting its analysis to specific fund structures, as other books do. Since governance and oversight of investment funds are now major regulatory requirements, administrators and custodians must place greater emphasis on the custody and safekeeping of fund assets, on the independent and robust valuation of the assets, and on collateral management. By focusing on both the asset transactions made by the investment manager for the portfolio and on the transactions in the shares or units of the fund itself, it gives readers insights about the essential elements of investment fund management and administration, regardless of their geographical backgrounds.

In the early 2000s, Chinese demand for imported commodities ballooned as the country continued its breakneck economic growth. Simultaneously, global markets in metals and fuels experienced a boom of unprecedented extent and duration. Meanwhile, resource-rich states in the Global South from Argentina to Angola began to advance a range of new development strategies, breaking away from the economic orthodoxies to which they had long appeared tied. In China's Wake reveals the surprising connections among these three phenomena. Nicholas Jepson shows how Chinese demand not only transformed commodity markets but also provided resource-rich states with the financial leeway to set their own policy agendas, insulated from the constraints and pressures of capital markets and multilateral creditors such as the International Monetary Fund. He combines analysis of China-led structural change with fine-grained detail on how the boom played out across fifteen different resource-rich countries. Jepson identifies five types of response to boom conditions among resource exporters, each one corresponding to a particular pattern of domestic social and political dynamics. Three of these represent fundamental breaks with dominant liberal orthodoxy-and would have been infeasible without spiraling Chinese demand. Jepson also examines the end of the boom and its consequences, as well as the possible implications of future China-driven upheavals. Combining a novel theoretical approach with detailed empirical analysis at national and global scales, In China's Wake is an important contribution to global political economy and international development studies.

Acclaim for The Education of a Speculator, a provocative and penetrating look into the mind, the soul, and the strategies of one of the most controversial traders of all time

"A compelling and an entertaining read." —The Wall Street Journal

"Victor Niederhoffer gives us page after page of distilled investment wisdom. Taken together, this is pure nectar to those who aim for consistently superior stock market performance." —Barron's

"The Education of a Speculator offers plenty of insights into the way markets work, but the epiphanies are what a reader might expect from Lao-tzu rather than, say, Graham and Dodd." —Worth magazine

"The Education of a Speculator is the first meaningful book on speculating. Successful speculating is as fine an art as chess, checkers, fishing, poker, tennis, painting, and music. Niederhoffer brings forth the best from each of these fields and shows the investor how their principles can enrich one's life and net worth." —Martin Edelston, President, Boardroom Inc., publishers of Boardroom Classics and Bottom Line/Personal

"With an original mind and an eclectic approach, Victor Niederhoffer takes the reader from Brighton Beach to Wall Street, visiting all stops of interest along the way. What emerges is a book full of insights, useful to the professional and layman alike." —George Soros, Principal Investment Advisor, The Quantum Fund

Commodities have become an important component of many investors' portfolios and the focus of much political controversy over the past decade. This book utilizes structural models to provide a better understanding of how commodities' prices behave and what drives them. It exploits differences across commodities and examines a variety of predictions of the models to identify where they work and where they fail. The findings of the analysis are useful to scholars, traders and policy makers who want to better understand often puzzling - and extreme - movements in the prices of commodities from aluminium to oil to soybeans to zinc.

They say John Maynard Keynes called gold a 'barbarous relic'. They say there isn't enough gold to support finance and commerce. They say the gold supply can't increase fast enough to support world growth. They're wrong. In The New Case for Gold, James Rickards explains why gold is one of the safest assets for investors in times of political instability and market volatility, and how every investor should look to add gold to his or her portfolio. Drawing on historical case studies, monetary theory and his personal experience as an investor, Rickards argues that gold should be a part of any prudent investor's portfolio. James Rickards is the bestselling author of Currency Wars and The Death of Money. He is a portfolio manager at West Shore Group and an adviser on international economics and financial threats to the Department of Defence and the US intelligence community. He served as facilitator of the first-ever financial war games conducted by the Pentagon.

"This is the book on porcelain we have been waiting for. . . . A remarkable achievement."-Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes A sweeping cultural and economic history of porcelain, from the eighteenth century to the present Porcelain was invented in medieval China-but its secret recipe was first reproduced in Europe by an alchemist in the employ of the Saxon king Augustus the Strong. Saxony's revered Meissen factory could not keep porcelain's ingredients secret for long, however, and scores of Holy Roman princes quickly founded their own mercantile manufactories, soon to be rivaled by private entrepreneurs, eager to make not art but profits. As porcelain's uses multiplied and its price plummeted, it lost much of its identity as aristocratic ornament, instead taking on a vast number of banal, yet even more culturally significant, roles. By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it became essential to bourgeois dining, and also acquired new functions in insulator tubes, shell casings, and teeth. Weaving together the experiences of entrepreneurs and artisans, state bureaucrats and female consumers, chemists and peddlers, Porcelain traces the remarkable story of "white gold" from its origins as a princely luxury item to its fate in Germany's cataclysmic twentieth century. For three hundred years, porcelain firms have come and gone, but the industry itself, at least until very recently, has endured. After Augustus, porcelain became a quintessentially German commodity, integral to provincial pride, artisanal industrial production, and a familial sense of home. Telling the story of porcelain's transformation from coveted luxury to household necessity and flea market staple, Porcelain offers a fascinating alternative history of art, business, taste, and consumption in Central Europe.

THE SECRETS TO CAPITALIZING ON THE COMMODITIES BOOM

In the mid-1970s, when Bob Greer scrolled through miles of microfilm in the basement of a public library in order to record commodity prices in his yellow legal pad, the idea of commodities being an investable asset class was way outside the mainstream. Now, it's a multibilliondollar vehicle for achieving portfolio diversification and inflation hedging--and he and his colleagues have written the book on earning better returns than the indexes themselves

In "Intelligent Commodity Indexing," Bob joins his fellow leaders of PIMCO's Commodity Practice, Nic Johnson and Mihir Worah, in opening up commodity indexes. Never before has there been a more thorough explanation of how a commodity index works coupled with a powerful set of strategies for making it work for you. Inside, you'll find the most up-to-date tools and time-proven best practices for earning "structural alpha" by capitalizing on recurring risk and liquidity premiums in the commodities markets. It offers the right amount of history and theory to reinforce cuttingedge techniques for: Interpreting how seasonal effects change risk premia Choosing the most profitable market for specific commodity exposure Using intelligent commodity indexing to collect risk premiums in the options market Maximizing roll yield in order to increase long-term returns Managing risk, including specific frameworks and systems

Investors gain a superior advantage with this book's coverage of the nuts-and-bolts workings of various markets.

Praise for "Intelligent Commodity Indexing"

""A seminal work on an asset class that has grown in importance within institutional portfolios. The authors offer considerable insight to this complex asset class and provide investors with a thorough examination of the drivers of risk and return."" -- Julia K. Bonafede, CFA, President of Wilshire Consulting

""This is an excellent guide for professional investors to successful investing in commodity indexes."" -- Blythe Masters, Head of Global Commodities, JP Morgan

""A manual written by successful practitioners for intelligent commodity investors. An excellent guide which explains how this asset class complements and interacts with other investments."" -- Alan H. Van Noord, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System

""Commodities are invaluable tools for investors wishing to benefit from diversification and inflation hedging. For such an investor, this is the authoritative source to all you need to know about commodity indexing."" -- Mark Makepeace, Chief Executive, FTSE Group

""Greer, Johnson, and Worah simply explain the critical drivers to commodity index returns that have provided the main historical benefits of diversification and inflation protection. Every commodity index investor, or hopeful investor, should read this book and use it as a guide for evaluating the relevant index characteristics for benchmarking and investing, especially given recent industry innovations."" -- Jodie Gunzberg, CFA, Director-Commodities, S&P Indexes

Very few books published so far have touched upon commodity finance and fewer still have provided a systematic explanation and analysis of the subject. It is however a subject that is relevant throughout almost every corner of the world From food to gold, commodities are ubiquitious. In this book, Dr. W. Huang, a practitioner and a trainer, covers commodities, commodity markets, commodity trade and the finance of commodity trade. As such, practitioners such as bankers and traders in commodity finance, and those institutions operating in this field, or planning to be active in this field, will all benefit from this book. This revised and updated second edition is a hands-on summary of commodity finance, with a special chapter dedicated to real-life case studies of commodity finance. Topics covered include: - High-level overview of commodity trade and finance. - The three major sectors of commodity finance: soft commodities, hard commodities and energy - Commodity finance and emerging markets, as most commodity export countries are emerging markets countries. - The special mechanisms and products of commodity finance, from plain vanilla products to more complicated structures. The concept of Supply Chain Finance is also covered in detail. - Bank and country risk. - Risk management principles, with practical case studies. - The organization of a typical commodity finance bank. The key benefits of the book are: For bankers - how to do business and what risks should be watched for? For traders, brokers and institutional investors - how commodity finance is done and what bank instruments can be used. For students - how is commodity finance handled and developed by banks? Each chapter can be read independently. The content has been reviewed by both experts and newcomers, incorporating their comments on style and content, to ensure it is as useful and clear as possible.

For courses in derivatives, options and futures, financial engineering, financial mathematics, and risk management. An Easily Understandable Introduction to Futures and Options Markets Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets covers much of the same material as Hull's acclaimed title, Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives. However, this text simplifies the language for a less mathematically sophisticated audience. Omitting calculus completely, the book is suitable for any graduate or undergraduate course in business, economics, and other faculties.

Commodity markets are integral to the global economy. Understanding what drives developments of these markets is critical to the design of policy frameworks that facilitate the economic objectives of sustainable growth, inflation stability, poverty reduction, food security, and the mitigation of climate change. This study is the first comprehensive analysis examining market and policy developments for all commodity groups, including energy, metals, and agriculture, over the past century. It finds that, while the quantity of commodities consumed has risen enormously, driven by population and income growth, the relative importance of commodities has shifted over time, as technological innovation created new uses for some materials and facilitated substitution among commodities. The study also shows that commodity markets are heterogeneous in terms of their drivers, price behavior, and macroeconomic impact on emerging markets and developing economies, and that the relationship between economic growth and commodity demand varies widely across countries, depending on their stage of economic development. Policy frameworks that enable countercyclical macroeconomic responses have become increasingly common-and beneficial. Other policy tools have had mixed outcomes.

A Handy Road Map To Making Moneyin The Commodities Market

Getting Started In Commodities

"Having already proven his success as an options strategist and expert trader, George Fontanills reveals that he actually made his start in the world of commodities and futures, and presents a book that is easily digested by the novice trader yet still holds value for experienced traders. Fontanills applies the same reason and logic that has given his options analysis its distinctive edge, covering diverse topics in relation to commodities such as futures, ETFs, and fundamental and technical analysis. Pay particular attention to the distinctive risk management approach that has become his trademark."
--John-Paul Drysdale, CEO, HUBB Financial Group

"George Fontanills brings an options guru's spin to the commodities markets. This kind of 'risk managed' perspective makes this book a must-read for any commodities trader."
--Alex Jacobson, Vice President of Education, International Securities Exchange

"Since futures are a leveraged investment, it's critical to understand the risks and rewards of trading these instruments. George Fontanills applies his risk management philosophy in this must-read book for individual investors who are interested in participating in the commodities markets."
--Christopher Larkin, Vice President, E*TRADE Securities

Little is known about the personal lives of each of these authors, but in surveying their other books and writings, a more informed picture emerges of their capabilities in their chosen field, stock and futures market analysis. From the quality and clearness of the writings in this and other of his works, it soon becomes apparent that Victor DeVilliers was not only very knowledgeable on the markets but he had the uncommon talent to put it into written words. (Most market authors are generally better traders and investors than writers.) On the other hand Owen Taylor was certainly extremely capable, being more the expert on the technical aspects of market analysis, something easily ascertainable from the Technical Analysis subjects that he presented in his own books and booklets. It is to the credit of both authors that they recognized just how valuable to investors and traders the Point and Figure method could be and that they saw fit to produce this fascinating work on a subject that in its essence is just putting small "Xs" on graph paper.But how to put them to graph paper and how to read their meanings is what can separate the trading and investing boys from the trading and investing men. Surveying all of the writings that have been published over the years, we find there have been and are a number of good, very good and excellent books on the Point and Figure methodology and its star attributes. However, every once in a while someone comes along and writes what is easily the seminal work, the finest on its particular subject. Some 65 years later we can attest to the fact that Victor DeVilliers and Owen Taylor rule the roost on their chosen subject with the two volumes republished here, which taken together, have to be considered the ultimate - "The Bible of Point and Figure Charting."

Can private standards bring about more sustainable production practices? This question is of interest to conscientious consumers, academics studying the effectiveness of private regulation, and corporate social responsibility practitioners alike. Grabs provides an answer by combining an impact evaluation of 1,900 farmers with rich qualitative evidence from the coffee sectors of Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. Identifying an institutional design dilemma that private sustainability standards encounter as they scale up, this book shows how this dilemma plays out in the coffee industry. It highlights how the erosion of price premiums and the adaptation to buyers' preferences have curtailed standards' effectiveness in promoting sustainable practices that create economic opportunity costs for farmers, such as agroforestry or agroecology. It also provides a voice for coffee producers and value chain members to explain why the current system is failing in its mission to provide environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and what changes are necessary to do better.

The shocking truth about where the markets are headed and why owning physical gold-not paper assets-is a far better strategy to building real wealth. An indispensable resource for the everyday investor, Gold Is A Better Way turns the strategies recommended by Wall Street on their head and makes the case for a return to sound investing. Adam Baratta strips away all the confusion and complexities surrounding investing and breaks down investment concepts and the simple fundamentals driving markets. He provides a roadmap for how to win at the game of investing and, more importantly, explains the "why" so readers can continue to win. Everyday investors gain tools that allow them to know with certainty they are making sound investment decisions, as well as an understanding of where to diversify investments that have historically performed well. There is a massive environmental shift happening in financial markets. Interest rates are rising and what has been very easy for investors in the past is about to become very hard. Everything people think they know about investing is being turned on its head. It's time to change investing behavior. "A fresh new voice in the world of gold . . . Baratta's book and cutting edge platform make the undeniable case why gold demands consideration in every portfolio." -ZeroHedge