Interpreting Commodity Futures and Options Price Quotes
Joe Parcell and Vern Pierce
Department of Agricultural Economics
This guide is designed to help producers to understand how to interpret commodity price quotes for futures and options. Those not familiar with futures and options price quotes may find the initial process of interpretation both time consuming and frustrating. The example that follows is for cattle but also applies to grains, oilseeds, cotton, rice and hogs
Futures price quote
Table 1 shows a typical futures price quote page for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Feeder Cattle Futures Contract. The column headed Contract shows the month and year of the feeder cattle futures contract for which the price quote is given. For instance, Jan-99 refers to the futures contract due to expire in January 1999. Open represents the opening futures price for the day. High represents the high bid for the day. Low represents the low bid for the day. Last represents the most recent bid of the day. For example, at 10:30 a.m. the last value would be the most recent bid and the high and low would represent the high and low of the day up until 10:30 a.m. Volume represents the number of short or long contracts traded up until that time of the day. That is, a volume of 630 indicates 630 short positions and 630 long positions have been taken, sellers equal buyers. Settle price represents the final bid price for the most recently concluded trading day. Weekly averages are sometimes reported by news services. These prices reflect the low, high, and close for the week. You cannot determine what day the low or high occurred through weekly quotes.
Table 1
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Feeder Cattle Futures price quotes for 10:30 a.m.
| Contract |
Open |
High |
Low |
Last |
Volume |
Settle |
| Jan-99 |
67.90 |
68.15 |
66.35 |
67.10 |
630 |
67.73 |
| Mar-99 |
68.00 |
68.10 |
66.40 |
67.15 |
204 |
67.70 |
| Apr-99 |
68.75 |
68.90 |
67.50 |
68.20 |
88 |
68.50 |
| May-99 |
69.55 |
69.80 |
68.30 |
69.00 |
35 |
69.48 |
| Aug-99 |
70.60 |
70.75 |
69.70 |
70.20 |
14 |
70.50 |
| Sep-99 |
70.15 |
70.35 |
69.50 |
69.70 |
4 |
70.30 |
| Oct-99 |
70.50 |
70.55 |
69.50 |
70.15 |
6 |
70.45 |
| Nov-99 |
70.80 |
71.55 |
70.50 |
70.80 |
1 |
71.50 |
Options price quote
Table 2 shows a typical options price quote page for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Feeder Cattle Futures Contract. Strike represents the price for which the call or put option contract is currently traded. Open represents the opening options price for the day. For instance, the $1.65 per hundredweight open price for a 7000 call is the price that was bid at the beginning of the day for a $70 per hundredweight Chicago Mercantile Exchange Feeder Cattle Call option. High represents the high bid for the day. Low represents the low bid for the day. Last represents the most recent bid of the day. For example, at 10:30 a.m. the last value would be the most recent bid and the high and low would represent the high and low of the day up until 10:30 a.m. Change represents the change in bid value from the previous day close. Volume represents the number of put or call contracts traded up until that time of the day.
Table 2
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Feeder Cattle Options price quotes for 10:30 a.m.
| Strike |
Open |
High |
Low |
Last |
Change |
Volume |
| March 1999 Call |
| 6800 |
|
|
2.15 |
2.15 |
-500 |
|
| 7000 |
1.65 |
1.65 |
1.3 |
1.3 |
-475 |
10 |
| 7200 |
|
0.95 |
0.8 |
0.85 |
-300 |
20 |
| 7300 |
|
|
|
|
UNCH |
|
| 7400 |
0.75 |
0.75 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
-225 |
5 |
| 7600 |
0.4 |
0.4 |
0.4 |
0.4 |
-25 |
5 |
| 7800 |
0.25 |
0.25 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
-50 |
5 |
| 8000 |
|
|
|
|
UNCH |
|
| 8200 |
|
|
|
|
UNCH |
|
| March 1999 Put |
| 5800 |
|
|
|
|
UNCH |
|
| 6000 |
|
0.7 |
0.55 |
0.7 |
50 |
5 |
| 6200 |
1 |
1.1 |
0.9 |
1.1 |
150 |
10 |
| 6400 |
|
1.6 |
1.3 |
1.6 |
200 |
10 |
| 6600 |
2.1 |
2.3 |
1.9 |
2.3 |
200 |
10 |
| 6800 |
3.0 |
3.4 |
2.7 |
3.4 |
450 |
10 |
| 7000 |
|
4.25 |
3.8 |
4.25 |
200 |
5 |
| 7200 |
|
|
|
|
UNCH |
|
G605, new December 2000