IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jimfin/v95y2019icp1-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price discovery in commodity futures and cash markets with heterogeneous agents

Author

Listed:
  • van Huellen, Sophie

Abstract

Since 2004, commodity futures markets have seen an unprecedented liquidity inflow linked to noise traders that follow global liquidity cycles rather than market fundamentals. This paper develops a price discovery model for commodity futures markets that incorporates noise trader effects by assuming two forms of limits to arbitrage: transaction costs and noise trader risk. It is shown that under these assumptions, commodity prices are driven by both market fundamentals and noise trader positions. Further, noise trader effects spill over to the cash market if limits to arbitrage due to transaction costs are imperfect but are confined to the futures market otherwise. The model is empirically tested using data from six grain and soft commodity markets.

Suggested Citation

  • van Huellen, Sophie, 2019. "Price discovery in commodity futures and cash markets with heterogeneous agents," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 1-13.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:95:y:2019:i:c:p:1-13
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jimonfin.2019.03.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026156061930172X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2019.03.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ing-Haw Cheng & Wei Xiong, 2014. "Financialization of Commodity Markets," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 419-441, December.
    2. Bassam Fattouh, Lutz Kilian, and Lavan Mahadeva, 2013. "The Role of Speculation in Oil Markets: What Have We Learned So Far?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    3. Philip Garcia & Scott H. Irwin & Aaron Smith, 2015. "Futures Market Failure?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(1), pages 40-64.
    4. Sepideh Dolatabadi & Morten Ørregaard Nielsen & Ke Xu, 2015. "A Fractionally Cointegrated VAR Analysis of Price Discovery in Commodity Futures Markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(4), pages 339-356, April.
    5. De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990. "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-738, August.
    6. Heidorn, Thomas & Mokinski, Frieder & Rühl, Christoph & Schmaltz, Christian, 2015. "The impact of fundamental and financial traders on the term structure of oil," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 276-287.
    7. Boyd, Naomi E. & Harris, Jeffrey H. & Li, Bingxin, 2018. "An update on speculation and financialization in commodity markets," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 91-104.
    8. Bozic, Marin & Fortenbery, T. Randall, 2011. "Pricing Options on Commodity Futures: The Role of Weather and Storage," 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 103638, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Garbade, Kenneth D & Silber, William L, 1983. "Price Movements and Price Discovery in Futures and Cash Markets," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(2), pages 289-297, May.
    10. Christopher L. Gilbert, 2008. "Commodity Speculation and Commodity Investment," Department of Economics Working Papers 0820, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    11. Figuerola-Ferretti, Isabel & Gonzalo, Jesús, 2010. "Modelling and measuring price discovery in commodity markets," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 158(1), pages 95-107, September.
    12. Suleyman Basak & Anna Pavlova, 2016. "A Model of Financialization of Commodities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(4), pages 1511-1556, August.
    13. Gonzalo, Jesus & Granger, Clive W J, 1995. "Estimation of Common Long-Memory Components in Cointegrated Systems," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(1), pages 27-35, January.
    14. Silvennoinen, Annastiina & Thorp, Susan, 2013. "Financialization, crisis and commodity correlation dynamics," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 42-65.
    15. Scott H. Irwin & Philip Garcia & Darrel L. Good & Eugene L. Kunda, 2011. "Spreads and Non-Convergence in Chicago Board of Trade Corn, Soybean, and Wheat Futures: Are Index Funds to Blame?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 33(1), pages 116-142.
    16. Johansen, Soren, 1991. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing of Cointegration Vectors in Gaussian Vector Autoregressive Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(6), pages 1551-1580, November.
    17. Kaplinsky, Raphael, 2006. "Revisiting the revisited terms of trade: Will China make a difference?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 981-995, June.
    18. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    19. Robert S. Pindyck, 2001. "The Dynamics of Commodity Spot and Futures Markets: A Primer," The Energy Journal, , vol. 22(3), pages 1-29, July.
    20. Machiko Nissanke, 2012. "Commodity Market Linkages in the Global Financial Crisis: Excess Volatility and Development Impacts," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 732-750, June.
    21. Hamilton, James D. & Wu, Jing Cynthia, 2014. "Risk premia in crude oil futures prices," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 9-37.
    22. Scott H. Irwin, 2013. "Commodity index investment and food prices: does the “Masters Hypothesis” explain recent price spikes?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(s1), pages 29-41, November.
    23. Scott H. Irwin & Dwight R. Sanders, 2010. "The Impact of Index and Swap Funds on Commodity Futures Markets: Preliminary Results," OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers 27, OECD Publishing.
    24. Anna, Petrenko, 2016. "Мaркування готової продукції як складова частина інформаційного забезпечення маркетингової діяльності підприємств овочепродуктового підкомплексу," Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, vol. 2(1), March.
    25. Jörg Mayer, 2012. "The Growing Financialisation of Commodity Markets: Divergences between Index Investors and Money Managers," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 751-767, June.
    26. Irwin, Scott H. & Sanders, Dwight R., 2012. "Testing the Masters Hypothesis in commodity futures markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 256-269.
    27. Brunetti, Celso & Reiffen, David, 2014. "Commodity index trading and hedging costs," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 153-180.
    28. Sophie van Huellen, 2018. "How financial investment distorts food prices: evidence from U.S. grain markets," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(2), pages 171-181, March.
    29. Dietrich Domanski & Alexandra Heath, 2007. "Financial investors and commodity markets," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    30. Kenneth J. Singleton, 2014. "Investor Flows and the 2008 Boom/Bust in Oil Prices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(2), pages 300-318, February.
    31. Md Rafayet Alam & Scott Gilbert, 2017. "Monetary policy shocks and the dynamics of agricultural commodity prices: evidence from structural and factor†augmented VAR analyses," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 48(1), pages 15-27, January.
    32. Granger, Clive W J, 1986. "Developments in the Study of Cointegrated Economic Variables," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 48(3), pages 213-228, August.
    33. van Huellen, Sophie, 2020. "Too much of a good thing? Speculative effects on commodity futures curves," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    34. Brenner, Robin J. & Kroner, Kenneth F., 1995. "Arbitrage, Cointegration, and Testing the Unbiasedness Hypothesis in Financial Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 23-42, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. van Huellen, Sophie, 2020. "Too much of a good thing? Speculative effects on commodity futures curves," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    2. Sophie van Huellen, 2020. "Approaches To Price Formation In Financialized Commodity Markets," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 219-237, February.
    3. Haase, Marco & Seiler Zimmermann, Yvonne & Zimmermann, Heinz, 2016. "The impact of speculation on commodity futures markets – A review of the findings of 100 empirical studies," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 1-15.
    4. Boyd, Naomi E. & Harris, Jeffrey H. & Li, Bingxin, 2018. "An update on speculation and financialization in commodity markets," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 91-104.
    5. Sophie van Huellen, 2018. "How financial investment distorts food prices: evidence from U.S. grain markets," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(2), pages 171-181, March.
    6. Ahmed, Osama, 2021. "Assessing the current situation of the world wheat market leadership: Using the semi-parametric approach," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(2).
    7. Duc Huynh, Toan Luu & Burggraf, Tobias & Nasir, Muhammad Ali, 2020. "Financialisation of natural resources & instability caused by risk transfer in commodity markets," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Ordu, Beyza Mina & Oran, Adil & Soytas, Ugur, 2018. "Is food financialized? Yes, but only when liquidity is abundant," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 82-96.
    9. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Davide Ciferri & Alessandro Girardi, 2014. "Time-Varying Spot and Futures Oil Price Dynamics," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(1), pages 78-97, February.
    10. Yan, Lei & Irwin, Scott H. & Sanders, Dwight R., 2018. "Mapping algorithms, agricultural futures, and the relationship between commodity investment flows and crude oil futures prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 486-504.
    11. Charoula Daskalaki, 2021. "New evidence on commodity stocks," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 811-874, June.
    12. Bohl, Martin T. & Siklos, Pierre L. & Stefan, Martin & Wellenreuther, Claudia, 2020. "Price discovery in agricultural commodity markets: Do speculators contribute?," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    13. Wimmer, Thomas & Geyer-Klingeberg, Jerome & Hütter, Marie & Schmid, Florian & Rathgeber, Andreas, 2021. "The impact of speculation on commodity prices: A Meta-Granger analysis," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    14. Osama Ahmed, 2021. "Assessing the Current Situation of the World Wheat Market Leadership: Using the Semi-Parametric Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-21, January.
    15. Yao, Wei & Alexiou, Constantinos, 2024. "On the transmission mechanism between the inventory arbitrage activity, speculative activity and the commodity price under the US QE policy: Evidence from a TVP-VAR model," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 1054-1072.
    16. Narayan, Seema & Smyth, Russell, 2015. "The financial econometrics of price discovery and predictability," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 380-393.
    17. Sanders, Dwight R. & Irwin, Scott H., 2014. "Energy futures prices and commodity index investment: New evidence from firm-level position data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(S1), pages 57-68.
    18. Galán-Gutiérrez, Juan Antonio & Labeaga, José M. & Martín-García, Rodrigo, 2023. "Cointegration between high base metals prices and backwardation: Getting ready for the metals super-cycle," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    19. Mayer, Herbert & Rathgeber, Andreas & Wanner, Markus, 2017. "Financialization of metal markets: Does futures trading influence spot prices and volatility?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 300-316.
    20. Lang, Korbinian & Auer, Benjamin R., 2020. "The economic and financial properties of crude oil: A review," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Commodity futures; Index investment; Price discovery; Speculation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing
    • Q02 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Commodity Market
    • Q11 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:95:y:2019:i:c:p:1-13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30443 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.