Monday, March 14, 2011

Market Fiction

Can a market be defined. No, a market is more a notion than a fact. Many, maybe most, think they know exactly what a market is. Ten people will give you eleven opinions.

Today's spot dairy trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is a case in point. Block Cheddar fell $0.135 to close at $1.88, a drop of 7 per cent. April Class III futures fell -$0.75.

If there was any evidence of new players running on the the trading floor with new breaking news, it would be one thing. But, it appears to be the usual gang of thugs.

Without significantly different players, what can be said, positively, about the quality of information the main players hold?

9 comments:

  1. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-13/milk-seen-plunging-14-as-costliest-cheese-in-quarter-century-curbs-demand.html

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  2. hunger is what i see in the futures

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  3. Usually a price dump like this would be to get rid of excess. We all know what this was, why doesn't the government.

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  4. The California 4b (cheese) price has dropped two dollars in two days. All of a sudden there's a glut of fresh cheese? Don't think so Maynard. Also look at the last offer.

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  5. I'm confused, I watch the markets and I watch this blog, I only see this blog blame the markets, notably the CME, when the price drops, but yet on days when Butter jumps $.20/lb. or cheese goes up a dime, no one complains. I appreciate everyone has bias, but how come no one wants a congressional investigation when the markets go up, only when they go down.

    Markets are dictated by supply and demand, when there isn't enough, they go up, when there is too much they go down.

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  6. Must be the organic market doesn't go up or down with the steady milk prices farmers recieve

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  7. I think the people who complain about the dropping cheese prices are more focused on who does it than supply and demand. If the same two or three players weren't doing it all the time and it appeared that it was market driven rather than other reasons it would be easier to understand. If only one cheesemaker was selling and only one buyer was buying why aren't they dealing with one another directly rather than paying the cost of CME fees?

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  8. That's interesting as to who are the players. I asked my broker, who has always been a good source as to the "players" at the CME, and he told me that the cheese that's been sold in the past 30 days has come from 10 different players. In addition, I was told that cheese from two different producer owned coops was recently sold on the exchange, and that AMPI was the only seller of cheese the week before last, so I guess the people who are complaining about the same "two or three" players seem to be misinformed.

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  9. The people who are complaining are not complaining about the last 30 days or the day to day trades that occur on the CME. They're complaining about a drop of 30 cents in the last three days, and I'll bet there weren't ten players involved in that.

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