Category Archives for What Went Right/Wrong
Week in Review
This week I was reminded again why I didn’t like the unpredictability of the corn markets. After trying to capitalize last week on what I thought was a weekly trend with an early week fall in corn prices, the Tradesim … Continue reading
Week in Review: Go Obama!
Politics made things very confusing this week. After Obama’s election Tuesday, and the promise of continued “status quo,” markets fell across the board. However, fears of what Reuters calls an impending “fiscal cliff” also injected fear into the markets [1]. … Continue reading
A jump in wheat
My spread position this week didn’t see much action, since any difference between contracts was hugely overshadowed by Wednesday’s surge in prices due to Ukraine’s announcement they would stop exports in November. [1] In keeping with longer-term trends, wheat prices ended … Continue reading
Week 5: Surprise!
Right when I thought I had these general trends under control – Surprise! All of our trading commodities suddenly hit bottom and rose last week, catching me completely unawares. I shouldn’t have been surprised, frankly, but it did cause me … Continue reading
Lessons Learned – Week 4
I ended the week in not a bad position, despite the massive jump in prices after the USDA report was released on Thursday, but the progress I thought I’d made earlier this week on understanding what I’d convinced myself was … Continue reading
Lessons Learned – a reflective look
I learned a few things over the last few weeks, most notably that trading in speculation is really, really complicated to conceptualize. After two crazy weeks of travel and work, I finally got a chance to look at what my … Continue reading
Missed the boat on an active week in corn markets
This was a week away from market news, which made me appreciate my last strategy of getting out of the volatile corn markets and moving into the more stable wheat markets. I ended the first week up more than $2000 … Continue reading
Up in Corn, Split in Wheat
This week I experimented in hedging by going both long and short in the same commodity. I successfully spent a few days making money in a short corn contract, but I wanted to try something more complicated, so I took … Continue reading
USDA trends and the resilience of corn influence a short position
I decided to start my trading with corn, since I am most familiar with the sight of expansive fields of it, as a former US Midwesterner. My few farmer friends are in the Midwest, and the drought this year has … Continue reading