Business Cycle
What is a Business Cycle? A business cycle is a cycle of fluctuations in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) around its long-term natural growth rate. It explains the expansion and contraction in economic activity that an economy experiences over time. A business cycle is completed when it goes through a single boom and a single...
Supply and Demand
What are the Laws of Supply and Demand? The laws of supply and demand are microeconomic concepts that state that in efficient markets, the quantity supplied of a good and quantity demanded of that good are equal to each other. The price of that good is also determined by the point at which supply and...
Capitalism
What is Capitalism? Capitalism is an economic system that allows for and encourages the private ownership of businesses that operate to generate profit. Also known as the market system, capitalism is characterized by private land ownership rights, competitive markets, the stable rule of law, freely operating capital markets, low corruption, and a price discovery process....
Roll Yield
What is Roll Yield? Roll yield is a type of return in commodity futures investing. It is driven by the difference in the price of shorter-dated, closer to maturity commodity contracts and their longer-dated counterparts. A futures contract is a promise to either buy or sell a commodity in the future but at a pre-determined...
Hard vs Soft Commodities
What are Hard vs Soft Commodities? Before we discuss hard vs soft commodities, let us discuss what a commodity is. The term commodity is an umbrella term for economic goods that are fungible, i.e., can be freely brought and sold. The commodities produced by a country include the raw materials and/or primary agricultural products mined,...
