Andy Hecht

The end of the summer is the start of the harvest season in the grain markets. The United States is the world’s leading producer and exporter of corn and soybeans, and a leading producer of wheat. The grains and oilseed are the agricultural... more

July 2020 was a month where the prices of gold and silver posted significant gains. In what has been almost a perfect bullish storm for the two precious metals, a decline in the value of the US dollar against other world currencies and the... more

The raw material markets made a comeback in the second quarter of 2020 after the global pandemic caused a deflationary spiral taking the prices of most assets lower in Q1. The commodity asset class consisting of 29 of the primary commodities that... more

The silver-gold ratio measures the price relationship between the two precious metals. Silver and gold are hybrid commodities as both have long histories as both metals with a myriad of applications and as financial instruments. Long before there... more

April 2020 will go down in history as the month that the price of crude oil fell to a low that most market participants did not believe possible. West Texas Intermediate crude oil began trading on the NYMEX division of the Chicago Mercantile... more

Optimism ran high at the start of 2020. The United States and China were about to sign the “phase one” trade deal that de-escalated the trade war that hung over markets in 2018 and 2019. The December 12 election in the United Kingdom paved the... more

Everything was humming along in the equities and commodities markets in mid-February. The S&P 500 made its latest record high on February 20. On the same day, the price of crude oil traded to a high of $54.66 per barrel on the nearby April... more

In 2008, the global financial crisis caused by a housing meltdown in the US and sovereign debt issues in Europe caused a risk-off period that sent the prices of all assets appreciably lower. Crude oil, copper, precious metals, and a host of other... more

A weaker dollar and de-escalation in the trade war between the US and China lifted commodity prices in the final quarter of 2019. In Q4, a composite of 27 commodities prices that trade on the futures exchange in the US and forward exchange in the... more

The coffee futures market can be one of the most volatile markets in the world. The world’s leading producer and exporter of Arabica beans is Brazil. The weather conditions in the South American nation and the level of Brazil’s currency often... more