Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jfutmk/v18y1998i7p765-801.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An analysis of the profiles and motivations of habitual commodity speculators

Author

Listed:
  • W. Bruce Canoles
  • Sarahelen Thompson
  • Scott Irwin
  • Virginia Grace France
Abstract
The focus of this study is the habitual speculator in commodity futures markets. The speculator's activity broadens a market, creates essential liquidity, and performs an irreplaceable pricing function. Working knowledge of the profiles and motivations of habitual speculators is essential to both market theorists and policy makers. Responses to a 73‐question survey were collected directly from retail commodity brokers with offices in Alabama. Each questionnaire recorded information on an individual commodity client who had traded for an extended period of time. The typical trader studied is a married, white male, age 52. He is affluent and well educated. He is a self‐employed business owner who can recover from financial setbacks. He is a politically right‐wing conservative involved in the political process. He assumes a good deal of risk in most phases of his life. He is both an aggressive investor and an active gambler. This trader does not consider preservation of his commodity capital to be a very high trading priority. As a result, he rarely uses stop loss orders. He wins more frequently than he loses (over 51% of the time) but is an overall net loser in dollar terms. In spite of recurring trading losses, he has never made any substantial change in his basic trading style. To this trader, whether he won or lost on a particular trade is more important than the size of the win or loss. Thus he consistently cuts his profits short while letting his losses run. He also worries more about missing a move in the market by being on the sidelines than about losing by being on the wrong side of a market move; that is, being in the action is more important than the financial consequences. Participating brokers confirmed that for the majority of the speculators studied, the primary motivation for continuous trading is the recreational utility derived largely from having a market position. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 18:765–801, 1998

Suggested Citation

  • W. Bruce Canoles & Sarahelen Thompson & Scott Irwin & Virginia Grace France, 1998. "An analysis of the profiles and motivations of habitual commodity speculators," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7), pages 765-801, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jfutmk:v:18:y:1998:i:7:p:765-801
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baker, H. Kent & Hargrove, Michael B. & Haslem, John A., 1977. "An Empirical Analysis of the Risk-Return Preferences of Individual Investors," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 377-389, September.
    2. Stewart, Blair, 1949. "An Analysis of Speculative Trading in Grain Futures," Technical Bulletins 156265, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Hartzmark, Michael L, 1987. "Returns to Individual Traders of Futures: Aggregate Results," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(6), pages 1292-1306, December.
    4. Lease, Ronald C & Lewellen, Wilbur G & Schlarbaum, Gary G, 1974. "The Individual Investor: Attributes and Attitudes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(2), pages 413-433, May.
    5. Hartzmark, Michael L, 1991. "Luck versus Forecast Ability: Determinants of Trader Performance in Futures Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(1), pages 49-74, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Reitz & Frank Westerhoff, 2007. "Commodity price cycles and heterogeneous speculators: a STAR–GARCH model," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 231-244, September.
    2. Günter Bamberg & Gregor Dorfleitner, 2000. "Concentration on the nearby contract in financial futures markets: A stochastic model to explain the phenomenon," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 24(3), pages 246-259, September.
    3. Stefan Reitz & Ulf Slopek, 2009. "Non‐Linear Oil Price Dynamics: A Tale of Heterogeneous Speculators?," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 10(3), pages 270-283, August.
    4. Gregor Dorfleitner, 2004. "How short-termed is the trading behaviour in Eurex futures markets?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(17), pages 1269-1279.
    5. Heemeijer, Peter & Hommes, Cars & Sonnemans, Joep & Tuinstra, Jan, 2009. "Price stability and volatility in markets with positive and negative expectations feedback: An experimental investigation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1052-1072, May.
    6. repec:bla:germec:v:10:y:2009:i::p:270-283 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Vansteenkiste, Isabel, 2011. "What is driving oil futures prices? Fundamentals versus speculation," Working Paper Series 1371, European Central Bank.
    8. Cristian Wieland & Frank Westerhoff, 2004. "A behavioral cobweb model with heterogeneous speculators," Computing in Economics and Finance 2004 171, Society for Computational Economics.
    9. Georg Lehecka, 2015. "Do hedging and speculative pressures drive commodity prices, or the other way round?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 575-603, September.
    10. Ellen, Saskia ter & Zwinkels, Remco C.J., 2010. "Oil price dynamics: A behavioral finance approach with heterogeneous agents," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1427-1434, November.
    11. He, Xue-Zhong & Westerhoff, Frank H., 2005. "Commodity markets, price limiters and speculative price dynamics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1577-1596, September.
    12. Westerhoff, Frank & Wieland, Cristian, 2010. "A behavioral cobweb-like commodity market model with heterogeneous speculators," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1136-1143, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicole M. Moran & Scott H. Irwin & Philip Garcia, 2020. "Who Wins and Who Loses? Trader Returns and Risk Premiums in Agricultural Futures Markets," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(4), pages 611-652, December.
    2. Guillermo Llorente & Jiang Wang, 2020. "Trading and information in futures markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(8), pages 1231-1263, August.
    3. Büyükşahin, Bahattin & Robe, Michel A., 2014. "Speculators, commodities and cross-market linkages," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 38-70.
    4. Kocagil, Ahmet E. & Topyan, Kudret, 1997. "An empirical note on demand for speculation and futures risk premium: A Kalman Filter application," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 77-93.
    5. Athar Iqbal & Sania Usmani, 2009. "Factors Influencing Individual Investor Behavior (The Case ofthe Karachi Stock Exchange)," South Asian Journal of Management Sciences (SAJMS), Iqra University, Iqra University, vol. 3(1), pages 15-26, Spring.
    6. Sang Hyuk Kim & Hee Soo Lee & Han Jun Ko & Seung Hwan Jeong & Hyun Woo Byun & Kyong Joo Oh, 2018. "Pattern Matching Trading System Based on the Dynamic Time Warping Algorithm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Changyun Wang, 2003. "The behavior and performance of major types of futures traders," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(1), pages 1-31, January.
    8. Konstantinidi, Eirini & Skiadopoulos, George, 2011. "Are VIX futures prices predictable? An empirical investigation," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 543-560, April.
    9. Young‐Rae Song & Yong‐Jun Yang & Hyung‐Sik Oh, 2009. "Interaction between Foreign and Domestic Investors in the Korean Stock and Futures Markets," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 249-267, June.
    10. Lipe, M. G., 1998. "Individual investors' risk judgments and investment decisions: The impact of accounting and market data," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 625-640, October.
    11. Good, Darrel L. & Irwin, Scott H. & Martines-Filho, Joao Gomes & Hagedorn, Lewis A., 2005. "The Pricing Performance of Market Advisory Services in Corn and Soybeans over 1995-2003," AgMAS Project Research Reports 14775, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics.
    12. Adjemian, Michael K. & Garcia, Philip & Irwin, Scott & Smith, Aaron, 2013. "Non-Convergence in Domestic Commodity Futures Markets: Causes, Consequences, and Remedies," Economic Information Bulletin 155381, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    13. Aaron Tornell & Chunming Yuan, 2012. "Speculation and hedging in the currency futures markets: Are they informative to the spot exchange rates," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 122-151, February.
    14. Robe, Michel A. & Roberts, John S., 2021. "20 Years of CFTC Data: Who Holds Positions in Agricultural Futures Markets?," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313995, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Ahmet E. Kocagil & Kudret Topyan, 1997. "An empirical note on demand for speculation and futures risk premium: A Kalman Filter application," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 77-93.
    16. Goulas, Lambros & Skiadopoulos, George, 2012. "Are freight futures markets efficient? Evidence from IMAREX," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 644-659.
    17. Yoon, Byung-Sam & Brorsen, B. Wade, 2005. "Can Multiyear Rollover Hedging Increase Mean Returns?," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 65-78, April.
    18. Kumar, Alok, 2007. "Do the diversification choices of individual investors influence stock returns?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 362-390, November.
    19. Robert Weiner, 2006. "Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together? Speculator Herding in the World Oil Market," RFF Working Paper Series dp-06-31, Resources for the Future.
    20. Raushan Kumar, 2021. "Predicting Wheat Futures Prices in India," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 28(1), pages 121-140, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G - Financial Economics
    • G0 - Financial Economics - - General
    • G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jfutmk:v:18:y:1998:i:7:p:765-801. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0270-7314/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.