Originally Posted by Lori S
The real question is did the manufactures buy futures and at what price?
The other side of this is...do commodity traders (buyers of futures) really provide a needed flow of money to farmers to grow or are they really just sucking a portion of the cost of everything from each of us; as in their profits as a gamble, at our expense?
When futures markets drive up the cost on news of a shortage, the real cost to weavers & mfr. (& later to us) for cotton goes up, even though the market traders do nothing for their profit. It's sad. Likewise grains (corn & wheat) futures traders do the same; this is really scary...this is our food.