Agricultural futures

The most commonly traded agricultural futures traded are Coffee, Sugar, Cocoa, Cotton and Orange Juice. We will look at these below

Coffee Futures

Trading Coffee Futures is a risky business. Coffee prices have been very volatile in recent years. As the Coffee price chart below demonstrates. Prices have fluctuated massively. Coffee is priced in cents per lb.

 Coffee Contracts are traded on the NYBOT exchange. One contract represents 37,500lbs of coffee.

Margin requirements are around $3,700 for initial margin and $2,700 for maintenance margin.

Orange Juice Futures

Orange Juice Futures are traded on the NYBOT Exchange. A contract is worth 15,000lbs of orange juice.

The Orange Juice Chart below shows how volatile orange juice prices have been in the past:

Cotton Futures

Cotton is used to make a number of textiles, so the price of cotton futures can influence many goods we buy. Cotton contracts are traded on the NYBOT exchange. One contract represents 50,000 lbs of cotton. Margin requirements are typically around $3,375 for initial margin and $2,500 for maintenance margin.

As the Cotton Chart shows, cotton prices have shown no consistent long term trend.

Milk Futures

Cows Milk is the most common source of milk consumed by humans after infancy. Milk Contracts are traded on the CME Futures exchange. One contract is worth 200,000lbs of milk. Margin requirements for the CME milk contract are typically around $1,350 for initial margin and $1,000 for maintenance margin.

As the milk chart above shows, milk prices have been fairly constant with a few periodic spikes.

Cocoa Futures

Most of us are family with cocoa. It is a major ingredient in chocolate. Cocoa Futures are traded on the NYBOT exchange. One Cocoa contract represents 10 tons of cocoa. Margin requirements of these contract is typically around $1,400 for the initial margin and $1,000 for the maintenance margin.

As the cocoa chart shows, cocoa prices like milk and cotton have showed no consistent trend.

Sugar Futures

Sugar is an used as beverages in many parts of the world. Sugar Futures contracts are traded on the NYBOT exchange. One sugar contract is worth 112,000lbs of sugar. Margin requirements for sugar contract are typically around $2,025 for initial margin and $1,500 for maintenance.

As the sugar chart shows, sugar prices has been subject to some big spikes over the years.