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Do long-short speculators destabilize commodity futures markets?

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  • Miffre, Joëlle
  • Brooks, Chris

Abstract

This paper contributes to the debate on the effects of the financialization of commodity futures markets by studying the conditional volatility of long–short commodity portfolios and their conditional correlations with traditional assets (stocks and bonds). Using several groups of trading strategies that hedge fund managers are known to implement, we show that long–short speculators do not cause changes in the volatilities of the portfolios they hold or changes in the conditional correlations between these portfolios and traditional assets. Thus calls for increased regulation of commodity money managers are, at this stage, premature. Additionally, long–short speculators can take comfort in knowing that their trades do not alter the risk and diversification properties of their portfolios.

Suggested Citation

  • Miffre, Joëlle & Brooks, Chris, 2013. "Do long-short speculators destabilize commodity futures markets?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 230-240.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:30:y:2013:i:c:p:230-240
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2013.09.002
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    Cited by:

    1. Smales, Lee A., 2016. "Trading behavior in S&P 500 index futures," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 46-55.
    2. Çınar, Gökhan & Uzmay, Ayse, 2017. "Does Fear (Vix Index) Incite Volatility In Food Prices?," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 5(2), April.
    3. Go, You-How & Lau, Wee-Yeap, 2017. "Investor demand, market efficiency and spot-futures relation: Further evidence from crude palm oil," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 135-146.
    4. Algieri, Bernardina & Leccadito, Arturo, 2019. "Price volatility and speculative activities in futures commodity markets: A combination of combinations of p-values test," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 40-54.
    5. Li, Jingyu & Liu, Ranran & Yao, Yanzhen & Xie, Qiwei, 2022. "Time-frequency volatility spillovers across the international crude oil market and Chinese major energy futures markets: Evidence from COVID-19," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. Demirer, Rıza & Lee, Hsiang-Tai & Lien, Donald, 2015. "Does the stock market drive herd behavior in commodity futures markets?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 32-44.
    7. Bohl, Martin T. & Sulewski, Christoph, 2019. "The impact of long-short speculators on the volatility of agricultural commodity futures prices," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    8. Fan, John Hua & Mo, Di & Zhang, Tingxi, 2022. "The “necessary evil” in Chinese commodity markets," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    9. Fernando Antonio Lucena Aiube & Ariel Levy, 2019. "Recent movement of oil prices and future scenarios [Movimentos recentes dos preços do petróleo e os cenários futuros]," Nova Economia, Economics Department, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), vol. 29(1), pages 223-248, January-A.
    10. Fizaine, Florian, 2018. "Toward generalization of futures contracts for raw materials: A probabilistic answer applied to metal markets," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 379-388.
    11. Raimonda Martinkutė-Kaulienė, 2014. "Risk Factors in Derivatives Markets," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 2(4), pages 71-83.
    12. Cagatay Basarir & Mehmet Fatih Bayramoglu, 2018. "Global Macroeconomic Determinants of the Domestic Commodity Derivatives," Contributions to Economics, in: Hasan Dincer & Ümit Hacioglu & Serhat Yüksel (ed.), Global Approaches in Financial Economics, Banking, and Finance, chapter 0, pages 331-349, Springer.
    13. Martin T. Bohl & Christoph Sulewski, 2018. "The Impact of Long-Short Speculators on the Volatility of Agricultural Commodity Futures Prices," CQE Working Papers 7718, Center for Quantitative Economics (CQE), University of Muenster.
    14. Sun, Hang & Bos, Jaap.W.B. & Rodrigues, Paulo, 2023. "Destabilizing or passive? The impact of commodity index traders on equilibrium prices," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 271-285.
    15. Qingbin Gong & Zhe Yang, 2020. "Arbitrage, speculation and futures price fluctuations with boundedly rational and heterogeneous agents," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 15(4), pages 763-791, October.
    16. Arık, Evren & Mutlu, Elif, 2014. "Chinese steel market in the post-futures period," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 10-17.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financialization; Commodity markets; Speculators; Volatility; Correlation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing

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