No doubt almost everyone that gets involved in futures, will eventually hear the old-wives tale about novice commodity futures traders having 5,000 bushels of soybeans or thousands of barrels of crude oil delivered to their front yard. Truth be told, most traders never take delivery of a futures contract’s underlying instrument. While a trader may wish to speculate on the direction of live cattle futures, in my 30 years in this industry, I don’t know one trader that took delivery of the 40,000 pounds of cattle called for in the contract specifications (although many commercial meat packers will often take delivery of the underlying commodity).
