Using Commodity Options to Hedge Price Risk: 14 Part Education Series

Professional traders and commercial market participants regularly use commodity options to generate profits and reduce their exposure to risk. This 14-part educational series is designed to get you started using Grains, Oilseeds and Livestock options in the very same way.

INTRODUCTORY SESSIONS

Overview of Cash Grain Markets
Sue Goll, Independent Agricultural Consultant
Basis, cash contracts, transportation/delivery, market fundamentals and government reports in the domestic and international grain markets.
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Overview of Cash Livestock Markets
Steve R. Meyer, Ph.D., Paragon Economics, Inc.
Basis, cash contracts, transportation/delivery, market fundamentals and government reports in the livestock markets.
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Introduction to Grain, Oilseed and Livestock Options
Sue Goll, Independent Agricultural Consultant
Basic options terminology, concepts and specs (buy a call, sell a put, premiums, etc.) and mechanics of exercise, offset and expire.
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Commercial Hedgers and Options: The Buy Side - Grains and Oilseeds
Sue Goll, Independent Agricultural Consultant
Long futures, long puts, short puts and a long call / short put combo as well as a comparison of all strategies.
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Commercial Hedgers and Options: The Sell Side - Livestock
Chip Whalen, Commodity Ingredients and Hedging, LLC
Short futures, long calls, short calls and a long put / short call combo as well as a comparison of all strategies.
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How Speculators Use Grain, Oilseed and Livestock Options
Sue Goll, Independent Agricultural Consultant
Practical information on using long futures, short futures, long calls, short puts, strangles and straddles.
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INTERMEDIATE SESSIONS

Option Price Behavior and Choosing Strike Prices
Peter Lusk and Jim Bittman, The Options Industry Council
An understanding of how option prices change makes it possible to select “the right strike price” for a given forecast. This session focuses on the impact of changes in futures price, time decay, capital management and the differences in thinking used by commercials and traders.
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Option Price Behavior 2 - The Greeks
Peter Lusk and Jim Bittman, The Options Industry Council
Realistic expectations about using and interpreting delta, gamma, theta and vega are essential to using options effectively.
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Volatility - What Traders Need to Know
Peter Lusk and Jim Bittman, The Options Industry Council
Volatility is the most-used and least-understood word in options. This session presents practical definitions and examples of historical and implied volatility and how to calculate the expected range of futures prices from the current level of volatility.
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Vertical Spreads and Ratio Spreads
Peter Lusk and Jim Bittman, The Options Industry Council
Options give traders options – more strategy alternatives. Option spread strategies have unique characteristics and are appropriate only in specific situations.
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Complex Spreads 1 - Iron Condors and Butterflies
Peter Lusk and Jim Bittman, The Options Industry Council
Selling option premium with limited risk has its own challenges – selecting the appropriate time period, choosing strike prices and managing positions when the market moves more than expected.
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Complex Spreads 2 - Straddles, Strangles and Back Spreads
Peter Lusk and Jim Bittman, The Options Industry Council
There are many ways to take advantage of "the big move", but there are also risks. This session looks at the trade-offs of high volatility strategies.
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Panel Discussion with Market Participants
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