Hedged repos can be a great tool for all of those in the commodity supply chain to reduce stress on bank lines and margin accounts.

Is Bitcoin really a hedge against traditional financial markets? This article explores the relationship between Bitcoin and some major traditional investments.

Buy the rumor, sell the news - a reliable trading strategy?

Some of the world’s most powerful oil traders, including Gunvor, Vitol, and Mercuria, are now aggressively expanding into metals.
Why? Because as oil market volatility stabilises, metals present a massive opportunity—especially with the energy transition fuelling soaring demand.
Copper shortages could reach 10 million metric tons by 2035.
Lithium, nickel, and rare earth minerals are under immense supply pressure.
Geopolitical shifts are reshaping global trade flows.
But metals trading isn’t for the faint of heart.
Margins are compressing, fraud remains a major risk, and only those with deep expertise will thrive.
So, what does it take to succeed in this evolving market?

This is a question I’ve often asked myself, and I still don’t have a completely convincing answer. Unlike other refined metals like copper, zinc, and lead—where you must trade the physical metal to capture changes in premiums—𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗺 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Hedging is often viewed as a pure risk management tool—something used by companies looking to avoid outright price exposure. But can speculators hedge too?

In this article we discuss some of the impacts of the rising aluminum premiums.

One of the biggest fears companies have about hedging is getting caught in a 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, which can impact profitability. But avoiding hedging due to this fear can expose businesses to even greater risks.

In physical commodity contracts, back-pricings exists when the quotational period (QP) offers at least two pricing options. Crucially, the QP’s declaration date must fall after at least one of the pricing periods has passed.

Sometimes there are simple solutions that solve multi-layered problems. I thought of one such example that could have a dramatic impact on US commodities, inflation, and fuel consumption, among other issues: Truck Capacities

If you read posts on LinkedIn you will see there is a near-constant debate surrounding technical analysis (TA) vs. fundamental trading, here we discuss both approaches.

We are extremely fortunate that for base metals, there are multiple highly liquid exchanges that allow companies to hedge their price risk. However, this is not the case for all commodities, and even within base metals there are varying levels of liquidity.

Let's take a look at what some companies assume is the best way to handle their underlying price risk - a 'natural' hedge. In fact, a true natural hedge is not common and most of these companies are actually speculating on prices, rather than mitigating their risks.

Over the past year we have seen repeated cases of fraud in the commodities industry, ranging from small cases all the way up to billion dollar crimes. Often the key to these cases of fraud stems from a fake or doctored title documents, but what exactly is a title document. This article explores what title documents are and what can go wrong.

Tariffs should not be a partisan or controversial issue. If they are implemented correctly, they can have benefits across the board. But failure to do so will result in inflation and potentially recession.

Hedge cards are a simple yet powerful tool. While they are most often thought of for outright price risk for metals (as discussed in prior articles), they are equally useful for managing foreign exchange exposures as this article details.

As we near the end of the year, we enter long-term negotiations for commodity contracts for 2025 and beyond. When negotiating these deals, it is important to remember foreign exchange exposures particularly for costs such as logistics or storage that are often charged in local currency.

Over the past few years commodity bulls have been talking up a dramatic stimulus plan from China. Time and again what has actually materialized has failed to live up to expectations and as we've seen over the last week, it is having a dramatic impact on prices.

It is very difficult to know whether a market is in a correction or a full reversal. There are however some repetitive traits to each of these market conditions that can help traders identify the situation and position themselves accordingly.

There are so many influences on metals prices that need to be considered on a daily basis by commodity companies. One factor that has reared its head over the last few weeks: The price of Oil