In The Futures , Forbes magazine senior writer Emily Lambert tells the rich and dramatic history of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade, the original futures market. Commodities exchanges have become some of the largest financial markets in our global economic system, yet the exchanges themselves and the speculators who run them remain largely misunderstood, as does their chief instrument: the futures contract. Lambert describes the emergence of the futures business as a kind of meeting place for gamblers and farmers that subsequently transformed into a sophisticated electronic market, one where contracts are traded at lightning-fast speeds. When Wall Street adopted the futures contract without the rules and close-knit social bonds that had made trading it in Chicago work so well, however, the effects were disastrous. But, as Lambert argues, the traditional futures market,with its written and cultural limits,can serve as a useful example of how markets ought to work, thereby becoming a tonic for our current financial ills.

Teamwork Is an Individual Skill argues that learning to work with others may be the most important skill in the knowledge economy. The book promotes productive relationships by focusing on five abilities: assuming personal responsibility for productive relationships; creating powerful partnerships; aligning individuals around a shared purpose; trusting when something is "just right"; and developing a collaborative mindset.

Two psychologists explain the benefits of refining, enhancing, and applying people skills in professional and personal situations. Includes a five - step plan to develop and practice skills in various settings.

It is the business of science to predict. An exact science like astronomy can usually make very accurate predictions indeed. A chemist makes a precise prediction every time he writes a formula. The nuclear physicist advertised to the world, in the atomic bomb, how man can deal with entities so small that they are completely beyond the realm of sense perception, yet make predictions astonishing in their accuracy and significance. Economics is now reaching a point where it can hope also to make rather accurate predictions, within limits which this study will explain. Complete with more than 150 grafts and charts. Wilder Publications is a green publisher. All of our books are printed to order. This reduces waste and helps us keep prices low while greatly reducing our impact on the environment.

W.D. Gann is considered to be the greatest trader of all time. This book reveals how to make profits on the commodities exchanges. It combines theory and practice, and through its straightforward, logical approach, Gann presents an excellent case for making money in commodities.

The book to which Mr. Gann claimed he gave the best years of his experience, How to Make Profits In Commodities is the favorite of among Gann-fan commodity traders and stock traders worldwide

First imported to America more than five hundred years ago and propagated on a small scale until the eighteenth century, cocoa is now one of the most heavily traded food commodities in the world. While potentially very lucrative, trading in cocoa remains a highly complex--and risky--venture, rendered even more so today by a sweeping tide of changes that has dramatically altered its landscape. In The International Cocoa Trade, the first comprehensive resource of its kind, commodity expert Robin Dand provides an all-encompassing guide to the global cocoa industry, delineating and clarifying its various intricacies for all who operate and trade within it.

Far more sophisticated than it was just a decade ago, the cocoa market has undergone major shifts--low prices, a decrease in the number of companies trading, and an increase in risk levels--that have not only altered the manner in which its key players conduct business, but have necessitated a better grasp of industry fundamentals by all those involved in the production, trading, and distribution of cocoa. As Dand points out, "The requirement of understanding the cocoa trade is not limited to those in the string of buyers and sellers. There are others outside this chain that now have larger roles in cocoa than in the past, in particular the banks, but also the shipping companies and warehousekeepers."

In this complete resource, Dand helps all links in this "chain"--exporters, dealers, brokers, bankers--achieve a better understanding of the market by providing a complete and accessible survey of all its essential components. Casting a wide net, The International Cocoa Trade offers a wealth of information on a variety of important topics, including the history and agronomics of cocoa, exchange rules, trading procedures, prices, and contract specifications. Here's where you'll find in-depth coverage of: Cocoa production--its history, evolution, and recent trends Quality assessment--the cut-test, fault definition and standards, methods of achieving quality cocoa The actuals market--export marketing, trade associations, marketing boards, processing Terminal markets--organization of futures markets, players, trading techniques, options, strike prices, regulatory bodies Contracts--weight and delivery terms, physical option contracts, forms and performance Consumption and stocks--the uses of cocoa, factors affecting consumption, assessment of stock levels, visible and invisible stocks, the International Cocoa Organization and the Buffer Stock.

Packed with numerous charts, graphs, and tables, and supported by a complete appendix that covers such vital cocoa contracts as AFCC, CAL, and CMAA, The International Cocoa Trade provides an up-to-date and incisive overview of a market that has grown and changed considerably over the past few years. An indispensable resource for everyone involved in the international trade of cocoa.

"Over the past few years the cocoa market has had to alter its manner of operation. . . . A]ll those in the chain of trade, from the exporter, dealer, broker through to the factory not only have to improve their understanding of the market but also some of the difficulties faced by others in the commodity. It is hoped that this book will help all involved in the international trade of cocoa to achieve this."--from the Preface.

The first comprehensive guide of its kind, The International Cocoa Trade provides an in-depth overview of one of the most heavily traded and lucrative commodities on the market, with complete details on: The history and origins of cocoa Agronomics and production Consumption and stocks Physical and terminal markets Trade and contract rules Quality assessment of beans Cocoa bean processing The manufacture of chocolate.

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.

Financial hedging refers to taking out investments in order to reduce or cancel the risk in another investment. Its purpose is to minimise unwanted business risk while still allowing the business to profit from investment activity. The problem of credit risk is one of the most important problems in finance. It consists of computing the probability of a firm defaulting on a debt. The time evolution of rating for credit risk models can be studied by means of Markov transition models. This book looks at the homogeneous and non-homogeneous semi-Markov backward credit risk migration models. A joint optimisation model for a firm's hedging and leverage decisions is also examined to help establish an integrated framework for value creation. Rather than artificially separating the two interrelated parts of the firm's financial policy, both corporate decision variables are treated as endogenous. Furthermore, the cross-sectional variation in indirect bankruptcy costs is discussed, possibly resulting from a deterioration of relationships with customers, suppliers or other stakeholders prior to the legal act of bankruptcy. The effect of probability weighting on hedging decisions is explored in this book. Observed hedge ratios in a storage context are close to zero in many situations and often smaller than the standard minimum-variance hedge zero. Thus, the importance of probability weighting in decision making and how it can cause dramatic changes in behavior is looked at. This book also re-examines hedging performance of the minimum variance hedge ratios (MVHR) estimated using both the OLS and the GARCH-type models with S&P 500 index futures contracts. In particular, the out-of-sample comparison of hedging performance of the MVHRs under different market volatility regimes are looked at. In addition, the analysis for parametric and non-parametric Markov processes are discussed and the construction of the transition matrix in these two different cases. Several possible strategies where the investors recalibrate their portfolios at a fixed temporal horizon are proposed. The authors also show how the Markov assumption can be used to forecast the portfolio returns and some simple empirical comparisons between Markovian strategies and classic reward-risk ones. Finally, articles in this book contribute to the literature on futures hedging in commodity futures markets by using wavelet transform analysis to define an explicit and tractable concept of time horizon. Differences in hedge ratios are discussed both across commodities and, for each commodity, over all time horizons of decision-making.

UPDATED & EXTENDED 2ND EDITION This practical book provides you with everything you need to be able to day trade grain futures effectively. It opens with chapters explaining the author's preference for the grain futures markets, and his reasons for preferring to day trade, before going on to explain the fundamentals of trading and the more specific knowledge required for his chosen approach. In a concise, punchy style the reader is introduced to some timeless trading concepts, and shown how these ideas can be moulded into a trading system to attack the exhilarating grain markets. No sophisticated indicators or complex mathematics are found here. Instead, the author builds a system based on tried and true trading principles, combined with sound money management strategies. The particular challenge for a day trader during the volatile market open is to quickly identify support and resistance zones, and form a view on trend direction, based on limited information. The author describes how he does this, with detailed illustrations and real life examples. He then goes on to explain exactly how, based on the initial market movement, he determines stop loss and target levels. A key feature of the book is the chapter tracing the progress of a real life trading session. It shows the author's methods being applied in practice, with numerous screen shots giving the reader an understanding of what the trading process feels like in practice - effectively giving you a fly on the wall view of the author in action. Another highly illustrated chapter shows a complete month of trading charts with commentary on trades taken, giving the reader an appreciation of the longer term trading process. A process described by the author as "constant repetition of a simple plan, concentrating on implementation excellence". Other chapters outline the author's views on the need for practice, and discuss the practical points a home-based trader should attend to in their computer and internet set up. The book's focus is to highlight the exciting opportunities of grain futures and provide the vital detailed and hands-on information that will make it invaluable to all futures, equity, options or CFD traders.

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.