Emmett Elam

Hedging Risk For Feeder Cattle With A Traditional Hedge Compared To A Ratio Hedge

This paper compares hedging risk for various weights of feeder cattle hedged with a traditional cross hedge and a ratio cross hedge. A traditional hedge calls for the purchase/sale of one pound of futures for each pound of cash feeder cattle. By contrast, a ratio hedge requires estimation of a hedge ratio to determine the number of pounds of futures needed to hedge one pound of cash feeder cattle. Hedge ratios were found to be larger than 1.0 for light-weight feeder cattle. By using the estimated hedge ratios, it was shown that hedging risk could be reduced 20-50 percent compared to that achieved by using a hedge ratio of 1.0.

An Evaluation of the Rice Outlook and Situation Price Forecasts

The Rice Outlook and Situation (RO&S) forecasts were compared to the forecasts of a univariate Box-Jenkins (BJ) model. On balance, the RO&S forecasts had lower mean square forecast errors and lower mean absolute forecast errors than the BJ model forecasts. The differences in the squared and absolute forecast errors were not significant, however. Based on the concept of conditional efficiency as set forth by Granger and Newbold, it was found that the BJ forecasts did not add any information that might improve forecast accuracy beyond what was already incorporated in the RO&S forecasts.

Price information in Producer markets: An evaluation of futures and spot cotton price relationships in the southwest region using cointegration

Producer spot (cash) prices of cotton from the Southwest region were compared to futures prices for cotton to examine the cash|futures price relationship using the cointegration technique. The results showed that the cash producer price and the futures price were not consistently related. The futures and cash prices were cointegrated in 2 of 4 years, while not cointegrated in the other 2 years. The inconsistency indicates that the reliability of the futures price as a source of price information to producers of cotton in the Southwest is questionable. This relationship may be arising from quality uncertainty in the producer market.

Simple And Multiple Cross-Hedging Of Rice Bran

Feasibility of forward pricing sales of rice bran via cross-hedging was investigated. Corn, oats, wheat, and soybean meal futures were considered as simple and multiple cross-hedging media. Simulation results indicated that simple cross-hedging using corn futures would be most effective in reducing price risks.