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When Speculation Matters

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When Speculation Matters INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty Supported by the CGIAR WHEN SPECULATION MATTERS Miguel Robles, Maximo Torero, and Joachim von Braun IFPRI Issue Brief 57 • February 2009 he food price crisis of 2007–08 had several causes—rising demand for food, the change in the food equation through biofuels, climate change, high oil prices—but there is substantial evidence that the crisis was made worse by the malfunctioning of world grain markets. Dozens of countries imposed restrictions on grain exports that resulted in significant price increases, Tgiven the thinness of markets for major cereals. A number of countries adopted retail price controls, creating perverse incentives for producers. Speculative price spikes built up, and the gap between spot and futures prices widened, stimulating overregulation and trader policing in some countries and causing some commodity exchanges in Africa and Asia to halt grain futures trading. Some food aid donors defaulted on food aid contracts. The World Food Programme (WFP) had difficulty getting access to enough grain quickly for its humanitarian operations. Developing countries began urgently rebuilding their national stocks and reexamining the “merits” of self-sufficiency policies for food security. These reactions began as consequences, not causes, of the This brief analyzes the role of financial speculation in price crisis, but they exacerbated the crisis and increased the behavior of agricultural prices in recent years. the risks posed by high prices. By creating a positive feedback loop with high food prices, they took on a life of their own, increasing price levels and price volatility even more, with adverse consequences for the poor and for WHATSPECULATION? IS long-term incentives for agricultural production. Because they impeded the free flow of food to where it is most Speculation is the assumption of the risk of loss in return needed and the free flow of price signals to farmers, these for the uncertain possibility of a reward. It is ordinarily un- market failures imposed enormous efficiency losses on the derstood to mean the purchase of a good for later resale global food system, hitting the poorest countries hardest. rather than for use, or the temporary sale of a good with Changes in supply and demand fundamentals cannot the intention of later repurchase in the hope of profiting fully explain the recent drastic increase in food prices. from an intervening price change. (A broader definition of Rising expectations, speculation, hoarding, and hysteria speculation could even include hoarding by consumers in also played a role in the increasing level and volatility of times of perceived market risk, but that definition is not food prices. The flow of speculative capital from financial used here.) Only if a particular position involves no risk investors into agricultural commodity markets has been can it be called, strictly speaking, an “investment.” drastic, and the number of future traded contracts is Financial speculation involves the buying, holding, increasing over time. From May 2007 to May 2008, the selling, and short-selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, volume of globally traded grain futures and options rose or any valuable financial instrument to profit from significantly. fluctuations in its price as opposed to buying it for use or Excessive speculation in the commodity futures for dividend or interest income. Speculation is one of four market could, in principle, push up futures prices and— market activities in financial markets, along with hedging, through arbitrage opportunities—spot prices above long- or short-term investing, and arbitrage. levels justified by supply and demand fundamentals. The In the context of food markets, speculators are supposed impact of speculation is sometimes confused, relatively risk-tolerant individuals who are rewarded for however, with the impact of hedging, which reflects accepting price risks from more risk-adverse hedgers. consumers’ genuine concerns about future fundamentals A risk-adverse trader who is or anticipates holding and desire to hedge against risks. the commodity (such as a farmer with a crop of wheat 2 approaching harvest) may hedge by selling now, in a behavior in agricultural commodity markets, we analyze forward or “futures” market, for future delivery at a four indicators: (1) volume of futures contracts, (2) open currently determined price. An individual who is or interest in futures contracts, (3) the ratio of volume to anticipates being short the commodity (such as a miller open interest in futures contracts, and (4) positions in of wheat) may hedge by buying now for future delivery futures contracts by noncommercial traders. at such a known price. Speculators in the futures market Monthly volume of futures contracts. This indicator may be on the long and short side of any single such captures the total number of trades in commodity futures transaction, but in the aggregate their commitments must contracts in the CBOT on a monthly basis, aggregating offset any net imbalances in the long and short hedgers’ contracts with different maturities. Typically, contracts with positions. (A short position is the sale of a borrowed maturities of 24 months or less are traded. The data show commodity with the expectation that the asset will fall in that traded volumes of agricultural commodity futures value. A long position is the buying of a commodity with have increased significantly in recent years (Figure 1). From the expectation that the asset will rise in value.) 2005 to 2006, the average monthly volume of futures for wheat and maize grew by more than 60 percent and those for rice by 40 percent. In 2007, traded volumes DATA AND again rose significantly for all four commodities, especially PROXIES FOR soybeans, whose monthly average was 40 percent larger SPECULATION than in 2006. During the first five months of 2008, only the This analysis of the role of financial speculation in the volumes for maize seem to have stabilized, whereas the behavior of agricultural prices in recent years focuses volumes for rice and soybeans were still growing at very on trading activities in agricultural commodity futures high rates—47 percent and 40 percent, respectively. One markets, drawing on information about trading activities reason for this increase in volumes and the subsequent in the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), a leading impact on prices in recent years may be more active agricultural futures exchange. The analysis encompasses participation in these markets by speculators, especially four major commodities: maize, wheat, soybeans, and short-term speculators, who open and close positions in a rice. To capture the size of and change in speculative relatively short period of time. Figure 1—Monthly volume of futures contracts and open interest in futures contracts, February 2002–February 2008 Monthly traded volumes Monthly open interest 600 500 450 500 400 400 350 300 300 250 200 200 150 Volume index Volume (1st quarter 2002 = 100) (1st quarter 2002 = 100) 100 100 index Open interest 50 0 0 Jun-02 Jun-02 Jun-03 Jun-04 Jun-05 Jun-06 Jun-07 Jun-03 Jun-04 Jun-05 Jun-06 Jun-07 Feb-02 Feb-02 Feb-03 Feb-04 Feb-05 Feb-06 Feb-07 Feb-08 Feb-03 Feb-04 Feb-05 Feb-06 Feb-07 Feb-08 Oct-02 Oct-02 Oct-03 Oct-04 Oct-05 Oct-06 Oct-07 Oct-03 Oct-04 Oct-05 Oct-06 Oct-07 Wheat Maize Soybeans Rough rice Wheat Maize Soybeans Rough rice Source: Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Source: Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Note: The volume index is a 3-month moving average. Note: The open interest index is a 3-month moving average. 3 Monthly open interest in futures contracts. Open interest short period of time, in contrast to futures traders who describes the total number of futures contracts for a given are not engaging in speculation. Hence a speculator commodity that have not yet been offset by an opposite taking opposite positions (buying and selling contracts) in futures position or fulfilled by delivery of the commodity. the market within days or weeks will generate an increase Every time a trader takes a position in the futures market in monthly registered volumes but little change in monthly (either long or short), it immediately generates an open open interest. Therefore, changes in this ratio would po- position until this trader takes the opposite position or tentially capture changes in speculative activity. In fact, this the contract expires. Open interest has been growing over ratio has grown little over the past few years (Figure 2). the past five years (Figure 1), but the average growth rates In 2006, for instance, the ratio was declining across all four for each commodity vary over time. From 2005 to 2006, commodities. In 2007, the results were mixed, with 31 per- the average monthly open interest in futures for wheat cent growth in the ratio for wheat and 17 percent growth and maize grew by about 75 percent and that for rice by in that for maize, but declining ratios for soybeans and more than 90 percent. In 2007, however, open interest rice. In 2008, however, both soybean and rice ratios were in maize and wheat declined slightly, and open interest in increasing, at 27 percent and 19 percent respectively, as rice grew moderately, at 21 percent. Soybeans, meanwhile, wheat ratios continued to grow at 19 percent and maize increased by 40 percent on average in 2007, grew at a rate declined slightly. Comparing this recent growth with 2005 below 10 percent in early 2008, and started declining in and 2006, when ratios for at least three commodities were February 2008. Furthermore, wheat experienced further declining on average, suggests that this ratio is a potential decline in early 2008, and maize grew at a rate of only instrument to capture speculative behavior.
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