HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1981-08-19, Page 4also meet some fairly strict daily reports of market activ-
financial requirements. ity, fienerally feature articles
Brokerage firms expect their or editorials are not good
"Hedging" implies reduce ' clients to keep them up to sources of advice. ay the
ing risk. In terms of mark- date on their ;financial poli- time the newspaper reports
tion. A trader's . bank may an activityit's oate. The
sting many people automat Y
leaky think of the futures also want some input into
market. In fact, a hedge can whether : he should trade
be accomplished lished by'several: futures or not. Young farm
means. The futures market is ers may just not be in a
justone type of hedge. financialposition to trade
The futures market offers futures.
market has already made its
move. Your problem is to
anticipate or predict market
trends.
Advisory services can be
useful whether you trade
•some opportunities and ad In this area grain futures futures or not. A couple of
vantages. Hies. h interest rates ' traders will use the Chicago these' are "'Pro Farmer" and
g
and . volatile markets make ' Board ' of Trade. Livestock "Top Farmer" from the U.S.
holding inventories both futures will be traded. on the Both, of these services have
costly and,. risky..' Margin re. Chicago Mercantile Ex- ; mail services as well as
quirements on a corn futures ' change. The reports you see i telephone "reports. Such ser -
Market, for' example, allow in the business section of vices are good practical tools
you to control • 5,000 bushels Your newspaper will report for the serious marketer.,
e' daily: activities of those Their man drawback is their
of corn for: about $1,000 (or the , �
less, dependingon your bro• markets. strictly American perspec.
kers requirements). YouI f you wish to become a tive. Local markets will not.
could control the equivalent trader, you start by, contact- parallel the U.S. market per-
of your whole crop,of corn for ingbrokeragefectly. You may be missing
a firm such as ' " .
about 10% as much invest- Merrill Lynch, Richardson's local` opportunities. Local
ment as it, you ." owned and " or Shearson's. A registered trade newsletters make a
storedthe crop: representative of the broker- good supplement to the
age firm will handle your advisory services.
On the other side of the trading ;orders. The trades Futures ' trading is very
ledger, the futures market is are then transacted through flexible. You can either buy
very risky. Surveys show the appropriate market of or sell.' Youaren't locked into
small traders tend to lose your choice.
four times as often as they The brokerage firms usual -
win in the market place. ly offer some :information:
Futures .trading doesn't suit services weekly reports
everyone psychologically. ` and special bulletins oispec-
Thereseems to be. more ific commodities. Some 'of
stress associatedwith trad- these are helpful, but in
ing futures than yin holding generalthese bulletins are '
♦ , • f�,FSf
• inventory of equal or. greater aims at. the` s altive ��;''�
value.Greed fear ork of trader.$�if:F{
The advice.. is pleb /{% ;;
self discipline can be ', not suitable for.e the ,V/;1/7
..2
p yourablyV/;1/ %r
%%;!f
undoing in futures trading. serious hedger.
The futures 'trader. must Newspapers , offer ; goodii r
any position. If youdon't like
a position you have taken,
you can .quickly cancel it --
take a small loss and look for
a better trade.
Flexibility ca. n be a prob-
lem.If you've investedin
advisory services and devel-
oped some technical market
analysis skills you : will see
loots of trading opportunities.
You will probably be tempted
to speculate even though that
wasn't' 'dour original intent.',
That's part `of.'the.: psychol-
ogical aspect of futures trad-
ing. You can get involved
and ultimately you'll lose.
The net movement of money.
out of the futures market is
zero. Each trade :; :has a
winner 'and loser: If you start
playing ' against the profes-
sional speculators, chances
are very .good that you'll
lose.
Cash contracting with a
grainelevator is a much safer
type of hedge. Unlike the
futures : market, you can't
change :your mind once
ru've made the commit:.
went. :You need to have a
price objective and when you
see it -- take it. There is no
financial or margin require-
ment to deal with an eleva-
tor, so it will apPeal to the
person who ' doesn't , have
spare cash to devote . to
marketing; . •
Cash . contractswill also
keep you "conservative. You
know you'll, haVe to ` deliver
the grain so you 'won't sell
more than you're sure you'll
have. You really • can't
gamble too much with a
delivery contract. .
Farm storage can also be
considered .a hedge. You can.
'hold grain. off the market.
when ` the prices are usually
under the most pressure -- at
harvest.
As one farmer told `°me,
"Farmers are good smart
producers but once they
get their grain - in storage;,
some get kind sof careless.
They feel their storage
should be full all the time!"
Well, most farmers aren't
careless -- but the guy was
right. Storage shouldn't be-
come a deterrent to selling.
History has shown that
usually ; inana
spring arethe.thew. ter beat marked erlyt
ing periods for grain (taking
interest, : insurance and
shrinkage into account).
Keeping bins full into late
summer is.expensive and
risky.
A wise marketing plan
won't depend on any single
hedging tool. Several heeling
tools can be used together to
capture good price and re-
duce risk.
As Karl ' Stumpf at Den-
field suggests, if you use all
•the marketing tools available
you canreally extend the
marketing of any single crop
over about two years. there
is almost always a profitable
price to be hadin that length
Of time. The problem is to
have the self-discipline to
take the profit when you see
it. If you keep waiting for
that profit . to get bigger
before you grab it -- you may
miss it completely,.
Environment Ontario's
year-long study on Listowel's
experimental marsh has
shown that the common cat-
tail is as efficient as a
modern sewage treatment
plant in treating certain as-
pects of sewage effluent at
lower cost, Environment
Minister Keith C. Norton
announced today.
"Listowel's marsh. has
been successful in reducing
phosphorus .levels in sewage
effluent down to a level lower
than that of 'a conventional
sewage treatment .plant,"
said Mr. Norton.
Cattails use the nutrients
found .in sewage effluent in
much the same way lawns
use nutrients from manure
and other fertilizers. VYith
the cattails removing much
of the • nutrients from the
effluent, watercourses can be
kept fre?from an excessive
build-up of aquatic plants
and algae which cause large
daily variations in life -sus-
taining dissolved oxygen lev-
els. Dissolved oxygen is
essentials to any watercourse
to support fish and other
aquatic life.
The experimental marsh
was constructed for about
$300,000 and includes spec-
ialized equipment for moni-
toring treatment perform -
ince. Further studies are
under way to establish the
cost of an operational marsh
system. This, is determined
largely by the volume of
effluent' treated and the size
of the marsh area required.
"The findings so far sug-
gest that the marsh approach
to sewage •treatmentmay be
more feasible and less costly
than mechanical or other
fortis of treatment -- espec-
ially to obtain satisfactory
effluent quality, for discharg-
es to small streams", said
Doug McTavish the. Minist '
ry's southwestern regional.
r
director. .
Cattails are dormant .dur-
ing :the winter months and
throughout last winter treat-
ment was • minimal: The
'marsh, however, was then at
anearly stage of develop-
meet and further evaluations,
will be made next winter.
Successfful. Marsh operation
for late fali/early "whiter
would increase the cost effec-
tiveness of the :system. .An.
alternative is to store effluent
during the. winter to be
treated during the spring and
summer months. •
Last summer, 10,000 eat -
tails -were planted in Listowel
to treat part of the common-
ity's sewage effluent. Other"
forms of sewage treatment
were
found to be". very ex-
pensive for this community
of 5,000 'people and Envir-
onment Ontario scientific
staff adopted the: unique ap-
proach of using the hardy
cattail to treat sewage efflu-
ent.
In June the Ministry's
regional and head office staff `
conducted a tour of tike
facilities for town council,
Mina •Township Council
members, media and inter-
ested citizens. Ministry staff
used the opportunity to bring
arei residents up-to-date on
the progress of the exper-
intent 'marsh.
You and quackgrass have an on-going
fight. And at harvest time you can see
exactly where you're losing the battle.
Those patches of quackgrass are rob-
bing
you of your yield. plus they make
combining very difficult. Worst of all, when
you plow the quackgrass under... it's just
waiting to reappear nextsprng.
This fall, try something different. Use
Roundup®... and gena long-term control
program for quackgrass.
It's sure and easy. After your crop
comes off, let quackgrass regrow the
proper stage and spray with Roundup.
Wart five days and then continue normal
fall plowing. (You can treat even after
a mild frost if quackgrass is actively
growing.)
If harvest is late and you don't get good
regrowth this fall ...don't plow. Leave the
alone so you can treat it next
quackgrass
spring before planting.
When used in conjuction with your nor-
mal seedling weed control program, you
can control quackgrassforup to three
years.• ,
So this fali win the war against quack -
grass. Foref ective control of quackgrass
...nothing works like Roundup.
Monsanto Canada Inc,
Winnipeg, Montreal,
Toronto, Regina,
Saskatoon, Calgary,
Vancouver.•
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW Ttii=. LABEL DIRECTIONS FOR ROUNDUP*.
Ravriddreiiss a registered traderrrark 6f Mcii sanrb C'dmpaatiy: ititIOSatifrs Canada hic„, i egistered user,. 604drtsanto Company 10,