2023 Basic Grain Traders Workshop

Grain merchandising is an art form. This one-day workshop is designed for everyone from new hires to current traders wanting to hone their skills. The course will:

• Introduce attendees to how the process of merchandizing moves grain from the farm, through the commercial storage system and ultimately to the end user or exporter.
• Explain the futures and options markets and how/when to use those derivative markets to hedge physical grain positions.
• Get attendees thinking about their position as an aggregate basis position rather than a series of individual transactions.
• Examine the interactive relationship between basis, futures, and forward spreads and learn how to respond to carry and inverse environments.
• Show some simple grain accounting to get a sense of what your accounting software is doing but more importantly, to dig deeper into how the daily flow of grain is accumulated into a position, creating opportunities in the local basis market.
• Introduce attendees to some basic grain origination contracts that can be used to increase a company’s handle.