It is impossible to imagine the history of the USA without cotton. The chemical and physical properties of cotton make it indispensable as a raw material for the clothing and textile industry. The quota traded annually worldwide is in the order of 80 million tons. Cotton is traded on NYMEX in New York City, ticker symbol is "TT". The contract size is 50,000 lbs (1 pound equals 0.4536 kg). The margin on the exchange side is USD 1,500.
As the basic material for electrical cables and data cabling, copper is one of the industrial metals of the 21st century par excellence. Copper is traded on several exchanges - the London Metal Exchange (LME), the Commodity Exchange (COMEX, one of the exchanges belonging to NYMEX) in New York City, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) - because of its overriding importance to the global economy. The contract size is 25,000 lbs, and the ticker symbols begin with "HG" (for "High Grade [Copper]"). The margin for a copper contract is currently USD 5,500 on the exchange.
NYMEX energy contracts are among the world's most important commodity futures contracts. The paramount importance of the oil price for the global economy leads to a great need for "hedging" by means of oil contracts. In hedging, a commercial enterprise whose profit margin correlates with the price of a commodity enters into a hedging transaction that locks in the future purchase price through an offsetting transaction on the exchange. Company X, which needs to buy oil products in September 2022 and wants to hedge against rising oil prices in June 2022, enters into a long position on the futures market in June. First scenario: The oil price rises until September. Company X will have to buy the oil at a higher price than in June, but compensates for the premium with the profit accumulated on the futures market until September. Second scenario: The oil price falls. Company X makes a loss on the futures market, but can buy the oil at a lower price in September. In both scenarios, the spot and forward transactions offset each other, and Company X has effectively locked in the cost of the purchase in September. WTI crude oil (West Texas Intermediate) is traded on NYMEX in New York City contracts at 1,000 barrels. The exchange-side margin is more complexly staggered compared to other commodities due to the high volatility of the oil market.
Gold is a precious metal. It is corrosion resistant and is in demand by industry. Gold is used in high availability solutions and in satellite technology. Gold has had the status of a luxury good since time immemorial, the status of one of the most valuable and rare raw materials. Jewelry made of gold was already a sign of wealth and power in the times of the Egyptian pharaohs, and is still the number one jewelry metal today. Gold is a crisis-proof investment. During wars and economic crises, people regularly speak of a "flight into gold". Gold (ticker symbols "GC" for "Gold COMEX") is traded on the COMEX in New York City, the contract size is 100 troy ounces (troy ounces, 1 troy ounce equals 31.10 g), so the contract size, 3110g, is about three bars of 1 kg. The exchange side margin is 7,200 USD.
