How to Invest in Commodities

The majority of the time you’ll be reading from tables that contain at three letter code for example FCF. FC stands for Feeder Cattle the last F stand for the month that the contact expires.

Here are the standard symbols used for each month by most exchanges:

F – January

G - February

H – March

J - April

K – may

M – June

N – July

Q – August

U – September

V – October

X – November

Z – December

Often times you will see commodities listed in the month/year/commodity/exchange format

Commodity exchanges are known by different codes below you’ll find a list of the various codes in the exchanges:

CBOT Chicago Board of trade

CME Chicago Mercantile exchange

COMEX commodities exchange center

CSC coffee, sugar, cocoa exchange

FINEX financial instrument exchange

IMM international money market

NYC New York cotton exchange

NYFE New York futures exchange

NYMEX New York Mercantile exchange

First notice day – is the first day that a notice of intention to accept delivery of the actual commodity will be made. This state is established by the exchange and in general is the date you want to avoid if you have a long position you want to offset your position by one to two weeks before the date if possible. Although it is possible to sell your contract after this date there are often many fees associated with this.

Last trading day – to this is when all trading ceases for this particular contract if you have a short position is not closed by the state it will be settled by actual delivery of a commodity to you. Once again, this is a date that you would like to avoid. Ideally, you want to get out of your position one to two weeks before the state.