Commodities and Commodity Derivatives

 

"Our instructor was brilliant and I walked out of the course looking at the commodity markets in different ways."

M'Liss Moore - Investment Manager, Kamehameha
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Course Outline

The current explosion of activity in commodity makes this course essential for all those needing a thorough and detailed understanding of all types of commodity transaction. This program provides an in-depth coverage of complex issues such as volume risk, mean-reversion, the forward curve, and the theory of storage. Plain-vanilla and exotic options on commodities will be analyzed in the context of trading and risk management, as well as a real options approach to energy physical assets. Lastly, different ways of investing in commodities will be presented and discussed, as well as ways of holding commodity baskets to diversify a portfolio and hedge against inflation.

All delegates will receive a copy of Professor Geman's book, "Commodities and Commodity Derivatives: Modelling and Pricing for Agriculturals, Metals and Energy".

Who The Course is For

  • Commodity traders
  • Hedge fund managers
  • Investment bankers
  • Energy company risk managers
  • Insurance companies
  • Industry Executives

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Prior Knowledge

Some basic knowledge of finance will be required. All fundamentals on commodities will be reviewed.


This program is eligible for 16 Continuing Education credit hours from the CFA Institute. If you are a CFA Institute member, CE credit for your participation in this program will be automatically recorded in your CE Diary.


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Day One

Fundamentals of Spot and Forward Commodity Markets

  • Outlook of commodity markets in 2012
  • Price Formation of Commodity Spot Prices
  • Commodity Exchanges and Instruments
  • The importance of liquid indexes for the growth of derivatives; the major lessons from Iron Ore and Steel during the year 2010
  • Understanding the impact of inventory on commodity spot price volatility
  • Shipping as an important part of commodities trading
  • Shipping Indexes and Freight Derivatives
  • Theory of storage and convenience yield
  • Carry trade and shape of the forward curve
  • Margin Calls in Futures Trading
  • Hedging with:
    • Futures
    • Forwards
    • Swaps

Base and Precious Metals

  • Zinc, Copper, Nickel, Lead, Aluminum
  • The London Metal Exchange and Warehouse Management
  • The new Exchanges: Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai
  • Gold as the ultimate currency
  • Silver, Platinum, Palladium

Energy Markets

  • Natural Gas Markets: the examples of the US, the UK and Japan
  • Shale Gas and its impact on LNG Trading
  • Crude Oil as a crucial commodity:
    • The new indexes
    • Oil refined products and the optimization of a refinery

Case Study: Modelling the evolution of the Crude Oil Forward curve. The Borovkova-Geman model applied to crude oil and natural gas

 

Day Two

Energy, Biofuels and Agriculture: the new developments

  • Electricity as a crucial commodity: the world picture after the Japanese disaster
  • The Power Supply Curve and the Spikes
  • Coal and its importance in the World Energy
  • Uranium, Rare Earths and Geopolitics
  • Agricultural Commodities: the old and new players and price volatility
  • Ethanol and Biofuels and their impact on Corn and Sugar prices
  • Wheat, Corn, Soybeans in the recent period
  • The Agribusiness and the Fertilizers Market
  • Financial Options on Commodities
  • The Smile/Skew in Crude Oil, Gold, Natural Gas
  • The importance of Spread Options in Commodity Markets: Sparkspreads, Darkspreads, Crush Spreads
  • Valuation of physical assets in the energy industry: Real Options as a pricing method  

Investing in commodities

  • The Major Commodity Indexes
  • The choice of Weights, Rebalancing Rules and Future Contracts
  • The Roll and the Shape of the Forward Curve
  • Commodity Structured Products and ETFs
  • Mergers and IPOs in the Mining and Energy World

Case Study: Investing in shares of oil and mining companies: how good is the performance compared to the returns in the spot commodities?

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