Tracking the forces behind volume patterns

摘要

U.S. soybean traders are used to seeing the most activity in nearby contracts, but the trading patterns in Japan and China are quite different. Here's a lesson on how regulations and participants affect liquidity. Soybeans are an important agricultural market around the world, but liquidity patterns in soybean futures markets are much different in the three largest soybean markets in the world. The most active trading periods occur at different stages of the contracts' life cycles: 1. Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), United States―Nearby month contracts. 2. Tokyo Grain Exchange (TGE), Japan―Distant contracts. 3. Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), China―Middle month contracts. If we are able to identify different liquidity patterns in different futures markets and understand the reasons for the differences, officials will be in a much better position in their efforts to improve the regulatory systems of soybean futures markets, increase market liquidity and take full advantage of the market economy.