Table of contents

    1. Seven Steps to Better Marketing
    2. Understanding supply factors for agricultural products
    3. How demand and supply determine market price
    4. How exchange rates affect agricultural markets
    5. How interest rates affect agricultural markets
    6. How to use charting to analyse commodity markets
    7. Agriculture marketing clubs
    8. Commodity futures markets
    1. Economics and Marketing – Choosing a Commodity Broker
    2. Margin on futures contracts
    3. Options on futures – an introduction
    4. Using hedging to protect farm product prices
    5. Canola futures contract
    1. Introduction to crop marketing
    2. Basis – How cash grain prices are established
    3. Grain marketing decision grid
    4. Price pooling – How it works
    5. Crop contracts
    6. Grain storage as a marketing strategy
    7. Using producer cars to ship prairie grain
    8. Using frequency charts for marketing decisions
    9. Western Canadian grain catchment
    10. Barley and wheat marketing resources
    11. Wheat basis levels
    12. Wheat quality and protein matters
    13. Wheat pricing considerations
    14. Marketing oats in Canada
    15. US Crops – Where Are They Grown?
    1. Introduction to livestock marketing
    2. Understanding and using basis levels in cattle markets
    3. Forward contracting of cattle
    4. Understanding dressing percentage of slaughter cattle
    5. Understanding the cattle market sliding scale
    6. Predicting feeder cattle prices
    7. Breakeven analysis for feeder cattle
    8. Farm gate values for farm-raised vs purchased calves
    9. Wool marketing in Canada
    10. Marketing feeder lambs
    1. Turf and forage seed trade companies active in the Peace Region
    2. History of creeping red fescue production in the Peace River Region
    3. Alfalfa seed marketing in Canada
    4. Forage seed marketing
    5. Marketing creeping red fescue
    6. Faba bean
    7. Marketing compressed hay
    1. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – A, B
    2. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – C
    3. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – D, E
    4. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – F, G
    5. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – H, I, J, K
    6. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – L, M
    7. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – N, O
    8. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – P, Q, R
    9. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – S
    10. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – T, U
    11. Agricultural Marketing Glossary – V, W
    12. Other Marketing Related Glossaries

D

Daily Bar Chart - A price chart for futures or equity markets where each bar represents one day's high, low, and closing price. Bar charts may also show the high, low, and closing price for each week (a weekly bar chart) or each month (a monthly bar chart).

Daily Continuation Chart - A futures price chart where each vertical bar represents the daily high, low, and close of the nearby futures contracts for a particular commodity over a relatively long period of time.

Day Order – An order to buy or sell a futures or options contract that is cancelled automatically at the end of that day's trading session if the order is not filled.

Day Trading – Opening and offsetting a futures or options position within the same trading session.

Dealer Car - A rail car that is allocated to a grain company to be loaded directly by a producer. Dealer cars are ordered for and loaded directly by a particular producer or producers, not by the grain company it was allocated to. See "producer car."

Deferred Delivery Contract - A contract in which a seller agrees to deliver a specified quality and quantity of grain, oilseed, or special crop to a buyer at a specified location at a specified date in the future for a specified, guaranteed price.

Deferred Futures or Deferred Months - Futures or options contract months being traded that are the furthest from expiry or that expire during a more distant time period. Also called back months or distant months.

Deferred Pricing Contract (DPC) or Deferred Pricing Option - Unpriced grain or oilseed delivered to an elevator company or grain dealer. The grain or oilseed must be priced by the producer within a specified number of days. In the past, DPCs were referred to incorrectly as storage contracts. See "priced."

Deferred Settlement Option - An alternative available to farmers that allows them to establish product price at the time of delivery, but actual settlement (payment) by the buyer is not made until sometime in the future.

Deliverable Stocks – An inventory of a commodity, located in futures exchange-approved storage, that meets the deliverable grade specifications and that may be used in making delivery on futures contracts.

Delivery (against futures) – An action by the holder of a short or sell futures position where he or she chooses to deliver the cash commodity (named in the futures contract) to a holder of a long or buy futures position rather than offset the short futures. See "short," "long," and "offset."

Delivery notice – A written notice given by the holder of a short futures contract to the clearing house, notifying of his or her intention to deliver the cash commodity to the holder of a long futures position of the same month.

Delivery Points – Locations designated by the commodity exchange where a commodity, described by a futures contract, may be delivered by the holder of a short or sell futures contract.

Delivery Month – A specified month in which a futures contract matures or trading ends and where the contract can be settled by delivery of the actual commodity by the seller of the futures contract or by cash settlement. The actual day of delivery of the commodity is usually chosen by the seller. For example, trading of December Barley ends in December. Any outstanding Dec Barley contracts require delivery of feed barley by the seller and acceptance of and payment for the barley by the buyer. See "settle or settled."

Delivery Period - A specified period of time when delivery of the cash commodity must be made by the seller to meet the terms of a cash contract such as a deferred delivery contract or basis contract.

Delivery Points - Locations selected by commodity exchanges where the cash commodity may be delivered to meet the obligations of a sell or short futures contract. For example, the delivery points for ICE Futures Canada canola contracts are registered primary elevators and canola crushers at a number of locations in the Prairie Provinces.

Delivery Price - The price fixed by the clearinghouse at which deliveries on futures are invoiced. Generally, the price at which the futures contract is settled when deliveries are made.

Demurrage – Most commonly, the holding of a ship in port beyond the stipulated or contracted time allowed for loading or unloading. The term is also used to describe the payment required to the ship's owner or operator as compensation for the delay in loading or unloading. Demurrage may also apply to railway cars, trucks, and barges.

Direct Sales - Sale of slaughter cattle based on direct negotiation between feedlot and packer.

Dispatch – An inducement, usually financial, paid by a ship's owner or operator to a shipper for loading or unloading in less than the stipulated or contracted time. Also spelled as "despatch."

Dockage (Screenings) - The foreign material, which could be removed from delivered grain, to arrive at the net weight of clean grain. Dockage is expressed as a percentage of the gross weight of the delivered grain.

Dressing Percentage - The yield of hot carcass weight (weight immediately after slaughter), expressed as a per cent of the weight of the live animal. For example, an animal with a dressing percentage of 58%, would have a warm carcass weight of 58% of its live weight.

Dutch Auction - An auction system whereby prices are successively lowered until the first bidder agrees on a given price.

E

Elasticity – The sensitivity of the amount supplied or demanded of a commodity as the price of that commodity changes. A commodity with elastic supply or demand will change in response to price movements. A commodity with inelastic supply or demand will have little change in response to a change in price.

Electronic Marketing – An auction marketing system for livestock, primarily cattle, where buyers "watch" the sale and bid using computers connected to the Internet. Potential buyers view standardized descriptions of each lot and, often, a small number of photos. Animals are not moved from the owner's facility until the sale is completed.

Electronic Trading - Trading of futures and options that operates by an electronic or computer network instead of on a trading floor. Electronic trading requires that all broker buyers and sellers make bids and offers by computer. The commodity exchange maintains an automated audit trail of all transactions. ICE Futures Canada (formerly the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange) began 100% electronic trading on December 18, 2004.

Embargo - An artificial or government-enforced prohibition preventing movement of a commodity or commodities out of a country or into a particular country.

English Auction - An auction system whereby bids are progressively increased in price until only one bidder is left. The last bidder is the buyer.

Equilibrium Price - The price at which the quantity supplied is equal to the quantity demanded.

Evening Up - Traders are "evening up" their futures positions, usually near the end of the trading day, by buying if they are short the market or selling if they are long the market. See "short" or "long."

Exchange of Futures for Cash - Also known as "Exchange for Physicals."

Exchange for Physicals (EFP) - A transaction in which the buyer of a cash commodity, who has hedged the purchase, transfers to the seller who has also hedged the sale, an equivalent amount of long futures contracts, or receives from the seller an equivalent amount of short futures, at a price mutually agreed to. In this way, the opposite futures hedges of both parties are closed out simultaneously without being traded on the commodity exchange. Also called "Exchange of Futures for Cash."

Exchange Rate - The cost or price of one currency stated in terms of another currency.

Excretory Shrink(age) - Shrinkage in livestock caused by the loss of contents of the belly, digestive tract, and bladder after the first few hours of transportation or when cattle are off food and water.

Exercise - The action taken by an owner of a put or call option, where the holder of a put option becomes the holder of a short futures position, or the holder of a call option becomes the holder of a long futures position at the option exercise or strike price. See "strike price."

Exercise Price - See "strike price."

Expiration or Expiry Date – The date on which an option contract expires. The last day an option can be traded or exercised.

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