World Perspectives
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Uncertain Times Ahead

We often say that uncertainty is the lifeblood of commodity futures markets. The greater its perceived level, the greater is the degree of price volatility. Any economic sector that heavily depends on weather (e.g., the production of agricultural commodities) is guaranteed a relatively high degree of uncertainty and accompanying volatility. Since many of today’s noncommercial managed funds are essentially market momentum followers, they often add to or expand weather-related price volatility. There is always uncertainty pertaining to questions about fundamental supply and demand. In recent years, there have been relatively more questions about demand since supplies were generally deemed to be at least ample and often more than ample...

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Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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