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Writer's pictureFahad H

My Experiences Trading Sugar Commodity Futures Contracts and Options

Sugar buying and selling is romantic! Here’s some precious hints and kinks taken from precise buying and selling experiences.

Sugar is a superb marketplace for starting commodity merchants. Sugar futures contracts require a small margin and barely make excessive strikes. Currently, an account margin of $1200 will management about $13,000 value of sugar. (112,000 lbs at 12 cents per pound) A one cent transfer in sugar equates to $1120.

Brazil is now power impartial from its use of ethanol within the type of alcohol. Ethanol is derived from sugar. This has introduced an amazing enhance within the variety of speculators and business hedgers buying and selling in sugar futures and choices. The volatility and liquidity generated is a constructive by-product.

Sugar trades for less than three hours a day, from 9am-12pm. What an amazing life to be an knowledgeable sugar dealer! It’s a 15 hour work week.

Sugar has made a number of excessive strikes over the past thirty-five years. The final massive transfer to 18 cents a pound was final yr. In the early 1980’s sugar hit 44 cents a pound. In the early 1970’s sugar hit 66 cents!

On the opposite facet, sugar as soon as obtained as little as 2.5 cents a pound. The entire 112,000 pound contract was value solely $2800! You might have taken supply and warehoused it for just a few years and bought it for 15 cents a pound or $16,800. (Or simply stored rolling the contracts ahead with no supply) That’s not a foul revenue if you happen to believed sugar was not going to be free. Multiply this occasions ten contracts and you’re looking at over $160,000 on a $30,000 funding. There definitely is alternative if one is prepared to tackle the danger.

During regular or quiet markets, choices on sugar futures are normally low cost and you should buy lots of time. Strategies are considerable for spreads, straddles, and strangles. Sugar makes numerous long-term patterns and formations. Wave evaluation and swing buying and selling works effectively for sugar when it is trending.

Some merchants search for the potential for “pyramiding” contracts when sugar is lively. This is a dangerous method used when the market is in an prolonged development. A dealer tries to maintain including futures positions utilizing earlier income. Don’t ever overlook this can be a double edge sword. If you add to positions, be certain that to regulate catastrophic stops in order that your losses are usually not uncontrolled if the market reverses. If the market stops you out and strikes within the different route, do not be afraid to get again in if the development continues to be intact. Sugar traits can final loads longer then most count on.

Look to exit positions after massive strikes through the morning opening or close to the shut. Sugar futures are likely to reverse after very giant strikes by gapping open the next day. Try to not maintain massive income over the weekend pondering Monday morning may have an enormous comply with by. You might wish to loosen up on Friday proper earlier than the shut.

If you’re feeling nervous about holding onto massive income, my finest recommendation and rule of thumb is to maintain one-half of your place and promote one-half. This means you may by no means be greater than one-half improper, and one-half proper. This is a type of “scaling out”, which is a favourite strategy of mine. Besides, after a climatic transfer the choice costs are normally very inflated. The possibility premiums may very well decline on a flat opening Monday as a result of the earlier panic response wasn’t justified.

Hurricane seasons are a time when the sugar market will get lots of consideration. There is at all times the chance that the crop in a number of the sugar rising areas might get blown away and broken past restoration. This might occur, however is uncommon. Many merchants purchase choices to cowl this susceptible time frame, seeking to revenue. Though over the lengthy haul, extra exact timing is required to cowl the choice premium bills.

An ideal technique for sugar is shopping for a name and promoting one other name at a better strike worth to cowl a number of the premium bills. (unfold) Also, you possibly can purchase a futures contract and purchase an inexpensive put as safety. And lastly, promote choices in a buying and selling vary after an enormous transfer. This is a method used to seize inflated premiums for worthwhile erosion.

Sugar has long run “kick-in-the-pants” cycles that produce huge strikes each eleven years or so. Keep an eye fixed out for the following one.

Here’s how I search for alternatives within the sugar markets: First I generate a TimeLine forecast that reveals a powerful transfer up or down in sugar. The TimeLine relies on time cycles and different preprogrammed patterns. I then decide if the transfer is predicted to be uneven, trending, and for a way lengthy. This helps us concentrate on potential directional futures/possibility positions or writing choices in a spread, and even writing choices with the development.

Next I exploit automated possibility software program to seek for the perfect of 1600 methods based mostly on the anticipated market transfer. I evaluate these choice to possibility mixtures in opposition to futures to choices mixtures. At some level I’ll discover a compromise between danger, revenue and ease in a single or two methods. In hindsight there’s at all times a finest technique we might have used. Keep that is thoughts when narrowing down the alternatives. When completed, we wish to have one or two potential trades to work with. We name the chosen few, “high probability, low risk trades.”

Remember there may be extra to planning a commerce than simply arising with a forecast. The market might transfer as predicted however we are able to nonetheless lose by selecting the improper buying and selling autos. Pick the fitting autos and methods that can enable us to remain out there with out extreme worry, however nonetheless carrying calculated danger.

We NEED to tackle calculated danger or the market won’t pay us for our providers. In addition, the automobile has to maneuver far sufficient to make a revenue with out letting the expense of safety eat us up. Excessive safety (danger avoidance) can come within the type of possibility premiums, too close-in cease loss orders – and overdone, advanced unfold methods. Matching a forecast to a method is a vital talent to achieve commodity buying and selling.

Good Trading!

There is substantial danger of loss buying and selling futures and choices and might not be appropriate for every type of buyers. Only danger capital must be used.

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