Today you can’t look at the housing market or the lumber industry without looking at the macroeconomy. There are no longer sectors, but one big unit of trade and we are married to that fact for a while. Thursday the markets reacted favorable to a better that expected CPI. Equities went higher and rates fell. The best quote I heard was that the market can finally see a bottom. It isn’t close but can be seen. What that means is that we know there will be a bump in layoffs. There probably will be a few companies that go under, but that is all part of the fix. Since the housing industry has such a long timeline new construction planning could be on the horizon. The industry can handle higher rates if in place and expected. A break in home prices will bring about a market again. Low home inventories, less supply of wood, no inventories in the field these are all positives. Things will slowly get better unless there is a blowup, and the fact is that rising rates breaks something. It always happens. Could that be bitcoin?
A $38 billion company with ties to hundreds of firm’s files for bankruptcy. The CEO says, “sorry my bad.” WTF…. I’m not sure that is enough to shake the entire global economy but will do some damage to many sectors from advertising to net worth of a generation. The generation we need to buy homes. It is too early to tell how much damage was done.
This downturn will take time to play out. Prices have to come down. These high prices for homes are unsustainable. With all this wait and see we could expect a sideways lumber market for some time. Rallies will come from a buy round followed by the slow pull back. The buys are only a temporary fix for the mills. They can’t build momentum off of them. Out in the trade price isn’t the driving factor. It is more based on need and as we have seen there isn’t much difference between $430 and $530 if it is needed.
Buy January calls and take the rest of the year off….
The Leonard Lumber Report is a column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
It has been 11 straight weeks of a trading range between $430 and $550. I have been able to cover virtually every negative or positive effecting this industry during that time. What we do know today is that single family homes are no longer affordable which will show in the data at some point. On the multifamily side there continues to be very profitable sales and/or rentals. Given those two points the question becomes how much wood needs to be taken out of the market before it reaches equilibrium. Let’s rehash some of the key points to see if any are indicators yet.
The builders are going to lock it down going into 2023. That is a given. I am seeing indications that the buy side is already gearing up for it. There is no building of inventories. It is a buy as needed cycle. With prices going down, it is a simple and efficient process. Just remember a zero inventory policy when construction isn’t dead sometimes backfires but in any case it will keep things lean. To sum it up, we are looking for a falloff in starts and a general zero inventory policy.
Supply will be curtailed. There will be continued moderate reductions. I expect to see less Euro as they work through the winter. I still expect to see a pickup in China. They have not been in the market for a very long time. Finally, we always have rail disruptions from the possible strike in a few weeks to winter issues. There will be less wood in the system.
The problems today are all the unknown’s. This is driving the zero inventory policy in the US. Someone said it well Friday when she mentioned that the Fed is “burning growth.” To be clear they are slowing down an overheated economy. An economy that they overheated. This back and forth will cause something to break. If the only thing to break is housing then we are close to being done. If there is more we will feel that effect.
The trade has many unknowns and stuck in a range. This upcoming week has the election and probably news of preparations for a possible strike. It’s hard to be short futures but I don’t expect to see much cash activity because of it.
Buy January calls and take the rest of the year off….
The Leonard Lumber Report is a column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
The key takeaway for the week was a falling futures market at a time when the short funds were covering. The quietness in the cash market was the feature. We are seeing a sharp drop in open interest as the funds exit. While expected it still is worrisome to not see any support from it. What is apparent is the fact that the industry is in drift mode. It is a buy only what you need market. No one can project what impact the rates doubling in 6 months is going to have on the entire industry. This guarded tempo is warranted. If this last rally was caused by the election bubble we expected then it could be a long cold winter. Let’s look at a few issues.
This is an industry with rapidly changing dynamics. The key driver is the Fed. We know they are out to slow the housing market and will do a good job of it. What we are now watching is the big ones. The first indication of a slowdown is liquidity. Most believe that something needs to blow up but that isn’t the case here. What we will see is companies looking inward and slowing most activity. This is the quiet bleed. The other major issue will be when companies start to put the “lists” together for layoffs. This is really the telltale sign. It took almost 15 years to get labor back to a stable level and now they may have to let people go. So, at this point we expect a liquidity crunch followed by layoffs. So that’s the macro picture. What is the micro picture?
As said earlier, we may have pulled forward business expected from the election bubble. We have seen a draw down in inventories to a level that keeps the trade in the market. Granted housing is eroding but the on-hand inventory will always be limited. I did expect to see much better basis business in the last few weeks. What we saw was a very big push back to build inventories or make margin calls. This looks like a one up and three weeks down marketplace. Those are very tradable. Going into next week I think there are three dynamics to watch. The first is that rates have doubled in 6 months and are now called to level off and hold through 2025. That’s not a typo. Next is expectations. Forward-looking reports indicate a slowing of both production and demand. 2023 could look a lot like 2019 as far as the trade goes. Is 402 the low? Lastly is the housing market itself. Some are calling it a meltdown, but it looks too busy to me to call it that. This looks more like a bear market that trades. Use the sell offs to own cheap wood for next year.
The Leonard Lumber Report is a column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
It was another positive week with futures adding another $45. That’s a run of $148 from low too high in 16 sessions. The first takeaway is that historically lumber liked 16-day cycles so it could be nearing its end. The other takeaway would be the fact that the futures market has only rallied $148. Yes, after hitting a low not seen since June of 2020, one would think it deserved more. The question is if this is a one-time cash buy or if there can be more? I’ll take two looks at the question.
First is the cycle. This cycle has a much better dynamic than the ones seen for the past 6 months. Two weeks ago, the buyer was able to buy cash and flip it in almost the same day. That is typical. The difference in this cycle is if a next buy round occurs the buyer will have a premium futures market to lean on. There is an out. That is something we haven’t seen in a long time. That might be just enough to generate more cash buying. It did in the past, I’m just worried the headwinds will keep most out.
The other and most difficult part of this industry is the gap in value from today till next month. There has always been a gap of some sorts but today many are worried that what they buy today will have no value down the road. It is a very real problem. We have already experienced it in 2022 and 2021. There was a time when a product didn’t hold anywhere near the value it was bought at. With today’s uncertainties most don’t want to be caught in it. That will probably limit the next buy round once the needs are filled in regardless of the futures premium.
Another issue I would like to touch upon is the economic future. There is a constant barrage of economic data hitting us daily. It is all over the prediction scale. I want to go back to an analysis I sent out a few years ago about money and housing. There is a lot of data using the last few recessions to gauge how this one will look. I have to warn you that this will be the first recession since the late 70’s/early 80’s that won’t have money thrown at it. Since 1987 every slowdown has had money push into the system. This recession could be ugly. The one caveat is that just possibly we have pushed enough into it, pre-recession, to be an offset. That didn’t help the Roman Empire but just maybe it can help us. This industry will be back on its heels for months. It will probably take until the second quarter to get a clear picture of housing. That doesn’t necessarily tell us not to hold inventory……
The Leonard Lumber Report is a column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
Lumber has long been known as a quite illiquid futures market. We talked about it on the RCM blog here, on the Hedged Edge podcast here, and Derivative podcast here.
But changes are afoot which may solve the main issues that lead to the illiquid nature of lumber futures, with the CME Group getting ready to launch a new lumber futures and options contract that will be smaller and have more delivery options, which we believe will allow for more effective risk management. The CME said it plans to launch the new contract early in August. The current contract that expires in May 2023 will be the last month under current specifications. This has caused some buzz in the industry, so let’s take some time to check it out.
The two big new key features as far as we’re concerns are:
• Small contract size for precise hedging
• Participation from throughout the lumber supply chain
The smaller contract size is very welcome in the industry as the current lumber contract is for 110,000 board feet (1 rail carload), whereas the new contract will trade in lengths of 27,500 feet (1 truckload). This will allow for more precise and accurate hedging while allowing for more participation in the market from smaller traders. Smaller traders had been pushed out in the past with the requirements and contracts not fitting their needs. This will allow for greater liquidity in the market that currently only sees a couple hundred contracts traded a day.
The new contract also allows eastern mills to deliver, where the current contract only allowed western mill delivery. This expands the accessibility to producers to accommodate the changing landscape and needs of the market. Delivery will now be in Chicago and allow for eastern species of spruce, pine and fir, instead of just species grown in the west (southern yellow pine is still not a deliverable species). This will make the market more accessible and will increase participation and provide more risk management options.
Now, the CME is a publicly traded company and they’re doing this to generate more volumes and interest in this market. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good thing. We think it will definitely create better liquidity for the lumber market, by both increasing volumes from current market participants and bringing new participants to the market.
By making deliverable contracts for both east and west mills while lowering the contract size, you attract new participants from all along the supply chain from producers of wood, to mills, on through to home builders. And as those commercial groups increase their footprint, the hope is that speculative trade flow (i.e hedge funds, ETF’s, and retail traders) also begin to increase interest in the market; creating a flywheel effect adding to the liquidity for the physical market participants.
The contract is ¼ the size of the old one meaning if you want to hedge or trade the same amount of board feet it will require 4 contracts instead of 1, creating more contracts to trade across the market (more liquid). The length also allows for more accurate hedging needs by making it easier to accurately manage your risk (think now you can protect 165,000 board feet vs either 110,000 or 220,000 feet). Traders will also be able to spread across the two markets for a short time creating new trade/arbitrage opportunities as they are not the same contract and specs, so they will not trade perfectly in tandem.
Ultimately homebuilders and speculators will be welcomed back into the market with these contracts being much more friendly. Builders will be able to hedge the price of lumber on a couple houses (or one large one) instead of having to hedge several at once that may not be under contract.
Our team as well as many others in the lumber industry are fired up after years of wanting a better lumber contract…LETS DO THIS!
As the contract progresses and ultimately receives approval, we will update this article to reflect new information provided from the CME and CFTC.
Contact an Ag Specialist Today
Whether you’re a producer, end-user, commercial operator, RCM AG Services helps protect revenues and control costs through its suite of hedging tools and network of buyers/sellers — Contact RCM Ag Services today for more information on how this new contract could fit your business. [email protected]
Commitment of Traders: -105 industry longs -104 spec longs
The fundamentals of our market are sound. Repeat; the fundamentals are sound, and there is a strong backlog of business. More business appears every day, and the marketplace is accepting these price levels. That makes today’s market fundamentally sound. The issue is that a lot of that new business has already been bought, and there is prompt wood all over. That leads to the trade having to define its value areas.
It is complicated to define value today. The manufacturing of this widget has too many components to peg a price to, and it wasn’t long ago we saw a survey that had 83% of respondents calling for a run back to $1,700. Today you have an industry frozen because of last Mays trade, and we end up with a sideways trade.
The best way to judge price with so many outside issues is to look at the technical read and the trend. A picture is worth a thousand words — the futures market is in a firm channel down, and the high channel sits at $915 while the low end is at $640. This is a 3-month channel that is slow moving, and it could take a month to get to the $640 area. On the flip side, the market would need a change in dynamic to run through $914 and stay.
Take a look at the chart below. A correction should close the gap above, which was left on Friday. If we don’t correct this by Wednesday, July may be back in the $600 quicker than most want.
The Leonard Lumber Report is a new column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
Change for the Week: May Futures 889.00 -$60.90
Open Interest 2782 +15
CoT + 245 Industry -143 Long Funds
The feature of the week was easily the $122 swing on Monday. May went from $40 higher to $80 lower in a matter of minutes. The feature may be more about how it was received than the distance, and it was met with a lot of yawns. What is noticeable is the collective sigh of relief from the whole industry on limit-down moves in futures. People need wood again. Looking at the commitment of the trader’s report, there is a continuing gain in the industry longs. These are forward buys in futures at the discount. They keep stacking up, keeping the cash side slow, and that will turn into business at some point. I would look for that to slow now that cash is close to futures. Any push in that market will cause a futures rally as short hedges cover. That is how the futures swing from a discount to a premium and bottoms cash.
While we expect the froth starts to come off the housing market, it won’t happen tomorrow. The market has slowed enough to allow the wood to ship in real-time, and it has not solved the logistics issue. We saw back in February reports of the rail sector staying tied up through the summer. Reports over the weekend of nitrogen producers seeing their car allotment shrink have turned the ag community on its head. Planting and growing seasons could see a shortage of fertilizer. If the rail side limits cars to that sector, we can’t see them freeing up more to the lumber side. That will be a factor in our market if the buyers hold out too long.
Let’s Get Technical:
The focus here is on a bottoming formation. There is a little-known gap in May from 825.00 to 809.00 set on December 1st. May hit $829.30 last week, putting the gap in play. Also, the bottom of the channel comes in at 795.00. If you are getting long, you can use $829 as your stop area. There’s no reason to wait around for $795. On the flip side, we don’t see a value in shorting the market on a rally. A close over $900 and a loss of the algo will send this thing $100 higher overnight.
Outlook:
Repeat… We’ve seen this drill before. One day the mills can’t give wood away, and then they are off the market. We hate to say it, but it is going to happen again. The longer this one takes to catch, the less the worthy the “sell in May and go away” will be. We see that $1000 wood could now be the new $1400. The mills should start to sell rallies in futures.
The trade locked in their second-quarter needs around $1400. Today the fight is at the $1100 mark and getting a lot of pushback. The point is a trading level of $1100. If that is the case, then futures are getting cheap. Cash was quoted at $1030 on Friday with no takers. We recommend staying out of the riptide Mondays in futures and waiting for a better read on Tuesday….
The Leonard Lumber Report is a new column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
Before You Go…
RCM Ag Services put a unique spin on National Agriculture Day by going international. That’s right, we jumped right into international waters with Maria Dorsett from USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Services for an interesting discussion about linking U.S. agriculture to the rest of the world.
Each year, March 22 represents a special day to increase public awareness of the U.S.’s agricultural role in society, so why not take it one step further by bringing in a global component? As the world population soars, there’s an even greater demand for producing food, fiber, and renewable resources. That’s why we’re taking a deeper dive into the USDA’s trade finance programs, like the GSM-102, which supports sales of U.S. agricultural products in overseas markets and supports export growth in areas of the world that are seeing some of the fastest population growth.
So, jump aboard (no passport needed), as Maria discusses how U.S. companies use GSM-102, what the program features, and the benefits that it offers!
The biggest takeaway from last week’s trade is that lumber cycles develop and remain in place. We as an industry try to decipher each outside influence on pricing to help make a call for a reversal or add to the confirmation. That was the case last week as a flood of news, noise, and reactions flipped the bull or bear switch a few times. By Friday, all we had was a lower price for the week. The key to businesses is to judge those cycles to be buying on the way down and selling on the way up. Is that possible today with a different rumor every other day and late ship times?
Cycle:
Cycles in lumber were generally easier to determine as they tended to relate to expirations, holidays, and seasonals. Today, they still relate but are also influenced more by previous trading and potential upcoming issues. This last upcycle, which may still be in place, has lasted longer than most at this time of year. This late Nov to early Mar run was unusual. But if we go back to where the market started in terms of moves, you can see how it became more underbought than usual and thus extended this upcycle. Another factor was that it took longer for the buy-side to reenter the market after the scaring it just took. That is also why you can’t call this upcycle done because the industry has not returned to the normal inventory building. It probably never will, but it’s always underbought in a good demand-driven market. If that catches up to this market, it will rally again.
Economics:
The publicly traded homebuilders, distribution, and producers are not the darlings of Wallstreet anymore. And why is that? Higher rates and inflation kills housing markets. The only way to come back into favor with the street is through increased sales. If the home builders can ramp it up for the rest of 2022, all three of the sectors will do better. My guess is the plan will be to increase construction based on the uptick in business showing up on desks.
Outlook:
The market has two opposing dynamics at work today. The one is good demand that is neither letting up nor getting bought for. The other is rising rates etc. Rates will be an issue, as we can see by Wall Street’s attitude towards the industry, but at the end of the day, this is a micro-focused industry. It looks only at the immediate buy or sells, and today it is looking for that cheap buy.
** There has been an increase of open interest of about 400 contracts. Almost all of that is from the industry, and it is evenly split between buyers and sellers. Many have realized the benefits of using the board to protect themselves from the ever-present swings.
The Leonard Lumber Report is a new column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
Before You Go…
RCM Ag Services put a unique spin on National Agriculture Day by going international. That’s right, we jumped right into international waters with Maria Dorsett from USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Services for an interesting discussion about linking U.S. agriculture to the rest of the world.
Each year, March 22 represents a special day to increase public awareness of the U.S.’s agricultural role in society, so why not take it one step further by bringing in a global component? As the world population soars, there’s an even greater demand for producing food, fiber, and renewable resources. That’s why we’re taking a deeper dive into the USDA’s trade finance programs, like the GSM-102, which supports sales of U.S. agricultural products in overseas markets and supports export growth in areas of the world that are seeing some of the fastest population growth.
So, jump aboard (no passport needed), as Maria discusses how U.S. companies use GSM-102, what the program features, and the benefits that it offers!
The futures market was under pressure all week as a seasonal pause had hit the market; however, the push to buy cash has eased. The transportation issue hasn’t eased, but the buying has. That has led to more wood in the secondary’s hand, thus more wood available in the field. That amount isn’t much, and it is high priced.
The takeaway from last week is only when the push eases, so does cash flow to the middle of the market. Any time a buyer sees two offers available, they close the POs, which is what we are seeing again. This industry is more afraid of buying a car and the market falling than missing a cheap vehicle and paying up. There is a lot of inefficiencies built into the market today. Another is the fear of a margin call. This lack of structure will keep volatility around and the mills in high cotton.
There are two ways to look at the market today: by counting sticks and needs for tomorrow or taking a closer look at where we are at in the housing cycle. For the bigger players, this quarter is done, the second is close to being finished, and now the focus is on the third quarter and those needs.
Housing report and Early Projections
This week we have the housing report, and the early projections are for 1.7 starts and 1.85 permits. The critical number is always completions, but these are the trendsetters. Ongoing predictions are for the numbers to stay in this area and completions to have only a slight uptick. We can see the builders accepting these prices and guaranteeing the product is key, not price.
The market experienced it last May with an uptick in forward pricing in the $1,200 range. That turned out not to be a great level to buy, but the push back from it was minor, and they were locking in the product. This year we’d expect the opposite with less forward sales. The industry will play for the break this time around, limiting the downside and extending the next rally.
Let’s Get Technical:
The technical read is negative. There is no easy way to say it. For the first time in months, the market has all signals pointing lower. If there isn’t buying on the break, the downside objective will increase, and it won’t get as low as most expect.
Another way to look at it is how the market reacts to the news. The added supply has pushed futures lower at a very slow pace turning the momentum indicators only after many down days. On the flip side, any good news spikes the market up.
We’d suspect the algo programmer is adding a selling layer, and the long fund is adding stops. Let’s face it. They are the drivers of our market and thus are the guiding factor for starts and stops. We see in the overall market that the buyer short cash because of jobs. The key to this move is to buy on the way down or are forced to pay up again.
The technical read is short, while the fundamentals are positive—hedge your risk.
The Leonard Lumber Report is a new column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
Before You Go…
A special guest joins us for this episode of The Hedged Edge, who is well known for his many titles, which include Doctor, Editor-in-Chief, Dean, and Chief Academic Officer, just to name a few. Dr. Channa S. Prakash, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Tuskegee University, has served as faculty since 1989 and is a professor of crop genetics, biotechnology, and genomics. He is also well recognized for mentoring underrepresented minority students.
Tune in as biotech guru Dr. Prakash discusses everything from Alabama football, genetics as one of the most extensive agricultural advancements, the most significant risk factors to feeding the world over the next 30-50 years, plus everything in between. And as a bonus, we find out what sport he would be interested in playing if he went professional.
Last week the commodity funds saw a massive influx of capital as the investment community tried to take advantage of a booming commodity cycle. The commodity index’s hit decades highs. How will this affect lumber futures? I’ll try to navigate all the features of the industry today. I’m pretty sure you can take the word lumber out and insert a different commodity because the issues look the same. Keep that in mind.
Factors pressuring the lumber market:
First is transportation, especially rail. Not only does it cause the jobsite supply to be late, but it is also complicating the whole process from logging to production. This organic slowdown in production will create shortfalls.
Next is COVID and labor. A labor shortage has been the industry’s nemesis for years now. Now COVID has placed a limit on how many days an entire crew is in place. Add to that a shrinking labor pool and the fact that production now looks different, and you get a builder that can’t get the production curve past 70%. It has kept the completion numbers down and the backlogs growing.
Another factor is the new 2-week pricing and the just-in-time inventory management. There was a major shift in inventory management after 2018’s run-up that has now grown to the number one choice of the distribution chain: contracts and VMI’s. A bullish demand cycle creates a large void in the chain, and many are forced into the market more often, creating bottlenecks.
These are the three dominant economic reasons for the lack of supply. A few others are:
Current demand and a 1.9 building permit number
The fact that another 700,000 workings were added to the economy
A push to buy as rates begin to rise
If you alleviate any of those factors, you will not solve the shortage issue. Only the lessening of demand will turn the market. Again, only the lessening of demand will turn the market.
Today, the marketplace is micro-focused on each factor, and any change will lead to selling. The market saw the result of that selling back in late January. We expect transportation to get better, and that change will take it from a horrible situation to bad. This will add some relief but not solve the problem. So, the mess continues.
An eventual pullback:
Where it can pull back to is a tough call. The first factor to look at is the new quarterly pricing. That will be a high number. This last quarter was manageable because the trade was able to mix in $600 cars with the new $1,200 cars making the number look good. This time the trade is paying the high of the year with nowhere to hide. Those same traders that were willing buyers on the last break at $800 are now at higher levels. It will create an artificial bottom again. The other issue is the trade refusing to pay up, thus sitting short in a rising market. That hasn’t been a good strategy and ends up bottoming any sell-off.
Factors to watch:
The appalling devastation Russia is causing in Ukraine adds to the logistics mess throughout Asia and Europe. Those issues will continue to disrupt the flow of lumber, bullish in a tight market. It also could be the tipping point to turn consumer sentiment down. We are already fighting massive increases in the cost of a home and major inflation on a personal level. We know the Fed has to push the economy into a recession to slow it. They have been reluctant to do that, causing even more pressure. The stock market is losing some steam. Those buying the second home with a loan from their portfolio are starting to push back. Any one of these factors can change the demand picture drastically. But each one has its own very slow-moving dynamics. There is no flip of the switch item there.
What could be a “flip the switch cause” is the drastic rise in limits, and historically that stopped a market trend which was its purpose.
Final word:
Only J. Powell and the old-timers think this market is going back to $300. It isn’t, and in fact, this market will be a tough go in the 1,000s for some time. Sell-offs will push the market lower, but buyers can’t wait on that today. If the funds start to show up down here, futures will hit $2,000. If they don’t, $400 up and $400 down will be the norm. Buy cash and buy a put…
About The Leonard Report
The Leonard Lumber Report is a new column that focuses on the lumber futures market’s highs and lows and everything else in between. Our very own, Brian Leonard, risk analyst, will provide weekly commentary on the industry’s wood product sectors.
Before You Go…
A special guest joins us for this episode of The Hedged Edge, who is well known for his many titles, which include Doctor, Editor-in-Chief, Dean, and Chief Academic Officer, just to name a few. Dr. Channa S. Prakash, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Tuskegee University, has served as faculty since 1989 and is a professor of crop genetics, biotechnology, and genomics. He is also well recognized for mentoring underrepresented minority students.
Tune in as biotech guru Dr. Prakash discusses everything from Alabama football, genetics as one of the most extensive agricultural advancements, the most significant risk factors to feeding the world over the next 30-50 years, plus everything in between. And as a bonus, we find out what sport he would be interested in playing if he went professional.
RCM Ag Services is a registered DBA of Reliance Capital Markets II LLC. Trading futures, options on futures, and retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions are complex and involve substantial risk of loss and are not suitable for all investors. Loss-limiting strategies such as stop loss orders may not be effective because market conditions or technological issues may make it impossible to execute such orders. Likewise, strategies using combinations of options and/or futures positions such as “spread” or “straddle” trades may be just as risky as simple long and short positions. There are no guarantees of profit. You should carefully consider whether trading is suitable for you in light of your circumstances, knowledge and financial resources. You may lose all or more than your initial investment. You should not rely on any of the information herein as a substitute for the exercise of your own skill and judgment in making such a decision on the appropriateness of such investments. Opinions, market data and recommendations are subject to change without notice. Reliance Capital Markets II LLC shall not be held responsible for any actions taken based on this website or attached links. Parties acting on this electronic communication are responsible for their own actions. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
