Fundamentals
What are fundamentals?
Non-price data, such as supply/demand, import/export, inventories/stock, consumption/production
How are commodities priced?
spot and future/forward
What is a future/forward?
Payment for a product now for delivery in the future
Where can I find futures and forward data?
Commodity Product Catalog; Contract Table Menu
What is a commodity?
Tangible, fungible good; physical product that can be delivered, eaten, touched, processed, etc.
Where can I find fundamentals?
Commodities Fundamentals
What is the dashboard that tracks spot prices of oil?
Boil
What is the difference between a future and a forward?
Futures: Exchange Traded
Forwards: OTC
Where can I see the complete futures chain?
Futures Contract Table
Where can I check units of a contract?
Description
Where can I convert units?
Unit Conversion
What is a spot price?
Price of product as of right now
What is the difference between Contango and Backwardation?
Contango: Price is lower in near future than far future; upward curve; positive cost of carry
Backwardation: Price is higher in near future than far future; downward curve
Where can I see the futures/forward curve?
Commodity Curve Analysis
What is the US benchmark for Crude?
West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
I want to see where vessels are in the world, where can I see this?
Custom Map
What is Commodities Product Catalog used for?
Locate futures and forwards
What are the types of futures contracts?
Physical Futures: physically delivered contracts/entitlement to actual product itself
Financial Futures: financially delivered contracts; receive the value rather than the product itself
Where can we adjust generic roll settings?
Commodity Defaults
Name 3 player types
Hedger
Speculator
Arbitrageur
Where can I see flow data of LNG and Crude?
Global Commodities Trade Flows
Where can I find spot price of corn in Brazil?
Commodity Spot Prices
What is the difference between Generic and Active ticker?
Generic: analyze pricing historically; strings futures contracts together based on expiration relative to other contracts in the chain
Active: determined by exchange; most actively traded future in the chain
Where can I see trends in specific futures contracts?
Commitment of Traders
What is a margin account?
Account that specifies the minimum amount needed for a trade to take place; initial margin: collateral needed before trading takes place; secondary margin: balance cannot dip below level