Fluctuations in the futures market for agricultural products
Abstract
Futures contracts are an important element in the market economy. The range of their use is quite wide, they may be an element of price risk management of agricultural production, so called hedging, but also the object of investment of free cash flows and financial speculation. Identifying the process of contract pricing is in this context a key factor for the success of investment activities. The paper attempts to describe fluctuations of ten futures contracts on agricultural products from the US market. Data series come from the years 1975–2016. Series of trading contracts are decomposed in terms of trends and cyclical components. The aim of the study is to assess the possibility of forecasting cyclical components. Harmonic analysis is used for the description and prediction of cyclical components. The effectiveness of predictions has been studied using fractions tests and Pearson correlation coefficient. The results show that the observation of past fluctuations may help to improve investments. Due to the irregular component, it is important to compare the results of predictions obtained from technical models with estimates obtained from the models that take account of fundamental variables.
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