CME surveys members on trade hours

The Chicago Board of Trade has launched a survey asking customers whether it should shorten the nearly non-stop electronic trading cycle for grains and hinted that executives had grown less concerned about competition from rival IntercontinentalExchange. The Board of Trade, which dominates agricultural trading with U.S. grain and oilseed futures and options contracts, in May


Analyzing the loonie’s move to below par

The Canadian dollar has been trending lower, since it penetrated the lower boundary of the uptrending channel. I have found that chart analysis is a valuable resource for determining the price trend and where support and resistance to the trend may be anticipated. Trendlines During the course of a trend and all the fluctuations which

Agrium doubling dividend under shareholder pressure

Reuters / Fertilizer maker and ag retailer Agrium said Oct. 22 it plans to double its annual dividend, marking its third increase to the payout in less than a year. The move, announced as the Calgary company completed a $900-million share buyback, comes amid pressure from its largest shareholder, Jana Partners LLC, which wants Agrium

Classic topping action in soybean meal

Each day’s prices and the pattern configurations are a direct result of human decisions to buy and sell

Technical analysis is the study of market movement. Its strength and popularity comes from the assumption that future price direction can be predicted by studying a market’s past activity. Technical analysis is concerned exclusively with the market and certain statistics the market generates — prices, volume and open interest. In technical analysis, no consideration is


CBOT, grain traders face off in court

chicago / reuters / CME Group faced off with a group of traders in Federal Court June 26 over new rules for settling end-of-day grain prices that the traders fear will put them out of business. The traders, who work in the open-outcry pits at CME’s Chicago Board of Trade, are fighting to preserve a


Crops briefs March 8

Record U.S. corn crop to cool red-hot prices washington / reuters U.S. farmers will harvest a record corn crop this year, which will rebuild stockpiles and bring down prices, a University of Missouri think-tank projected in a report March 5 that came in 2.5 per cent lower than the most recent U.S. government projections. The


Cattle prices start 2012 at a new historical high

Live cattle and feeder cattle rallied to a new historical high last week. In reaching $150, feeder cattle prices achieved a technical measurement derived from a rectangle pattern. Rectangles, or box formations as they are sometimes called, are found frequently on futures price charts. Most of the time, they are continuation, or sideways consolidation patterns,

Topping Action In Soybean Meal Sends Calming Signal

Livestock producers were left scratching their heads when the December 2011 soybean meal futures contract posted a new high in late August. The news was incredibly bullish, as concerns of an early frost were on producers minds. The big question was, Should I be locking in the price of meal before it gets any higher?