Commodities Search

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Balance of Payment: A summary of the international transactions of a country over a period of time including commodity and service transactions, capital transactions, and gold movements.

Bar Chart: A chart that graphs the high, low, and settlement prices for a specific trading session over a given period of time.

Basis: The difference between the current cash price and the futures price of the same commodity. Unless otherwise specified, the price of the nearby futures contract month is generally used to calculate the basis.

Bear: Someone who thinks market prices will decline.

Bear Market: A period of declining market prices.

Bear Spread: In most commodities and financial instruments, the term refers to selling the nearby contract month, and buying the deferred contract, to profit from a change in the price relationship.

Bid: An expression indicating a desire to buy a commodity at a given price; opposite of offer.

Board of Trade Clearing Corporation: An independent corporation that settles all trades made at the Chicago Board of Trade acting as a guarantor for all trades cleared by it, reconciles all clearing member firm accounts each day to ensure that all gains have been credited and all losses have been collected, and sets and adjusts clearing member firm margins for changing market conditions. Also referred to as clearing corporation. See Clearinghouse.

Book Entry Securities: Electronically recorded securities that include each creditor's name, address, Social Security or tax identification number, and dollar amount loaned, (i.e., no certificates are issued to bond holders, instead, the transfer agent electronically credits interest payments to each creditor's bank account on a designated date).

Broker: A company or individual that executes futures and options orders on behalf of financial and commercial institutions and/or the general public.

Brokerage Fee: See Commission Fee. : A fee charged by a broker for executing a transaction. Also referred to as brokerage fee.

Brokerage House: See Futures Commission Merchant. : An individual or organization that solicits or accepts orders to buy or sell futures contracts or options on futures and accepts money or other assets from customers to support such orders. Also referred to as commission house or wire house.

Bull: Someone who thinks market prices will rise.

Bull Market: A period of rising market prices.

Bull Spread: In most commodities and financial instruments, the term refers to buying the nearby month, and selling the deferred month, to profit from the change in the price relationship.

Butterfly Spread: The placing of two interdelivery spreads in opposite directions with the center delivery month common to both spreads.

Buying Hedge: See Purchasing Hedge. : Buying futures contracts to protect against a possible price increase of cash commodities that will be purchased in the future. At the time the cash commodities are bought, the open futures position is closed by selling an equal number and type of futures contracts as those that were initially purchased. Also referred to as a buying hedge. See Hedging.