There are two rival hypotheses concerning the motives for and costs of hedging. The first of these, advanced by John Maynard Keynes and J.R. Hicks, suggests that risk reduction is the prime motive for hedging and that hedgers pay a risk premium to speculators for assuming risk. The Keynes-Hicks hypothesis states that under normal conditions in commodity markets, when demand, supply, and spot prices are expected to remain unchanged for some months to come and there is uncertainty in traders’ minds regarding these expectations, the futures price, say, for one month’s delivery is bound to be below the spot price that traders expect to prevail one month later. This condition exists because inventory holders would be ready to hedge themselves from the risk of price fluctuations by selling futures to speculators below the expected spot price. By selling futures below the expected spot price, according to the theory, inventory holders who hedge pay a risk premium to speculators.

The rival hypothesis of Holbrook Working maintains that hedging is done with the expectation of a profit from a favourable change in the spot-futures price relation, to simplify business decisions, and to cut costs, and not for the sake of reducing risk alone. Hedgers, according to Working, are arbitrageurs; i.e., they take advantage of a temporary price difference between two markets to buy in one and sell in the other. They thus speculate on the basis and assume risk.

A compromise between these rival theories and a more balanced view regarding the need for hedging and the scope of hedging activities is that hedging is motivated by the desire to reduce risks, as suggested by the Keynes-Hicks theory, but that the levels of inventory held by merchants and processors are determined by expected hedging profits, as Working has emphasized.

There are two categories of hedgers in the futures market: they are called short and long hedgers. Short hedgers are merchants and processors who acquire inventories of the commodity in the spot market and who simultaneously sell an equivalent amount or less in the futures market. The hedgers in this case are said to be long on their spot transaction and short in the futures transaction. Wheat merchants or wheat flour mills who either have 100,000 bushels of wheat as inventory or have bought it for later delivery are said to short hedge if they sell 100,000 bushels of wheat in futures contracts. By holding inventories, both merchants and processors can make their purchases when it is most opportune and lower their transaction costs through fewer transactions. Another advantage to the processing firm in holding inventory is that it makes it possible to avoid interruption in production. It must be borne in mind that short hedgers do not normally deliver the physical commodity in fulfillment of the futures contract. They “lift the hedge” by repurchasing the futures contract at the prevailing futures price when they sell the raw material or the processed good in the spot market.

The merchants and processors do not generally hedge all their inventories for the sake of reduced risk. The decision on what part of inventories to hedge is based on their expectations relating to return from holding hedged and unhedged inventories in storage, given the cost incurred in both forms of inventory holding. The return per unit inventory to merchants and processors on their hedged inventories, when liquidated, is the change in the spot price less the change in the futures price and the storage costs. Their return on per unit unhedged inventory is the change in spot price less storage costs.

Long hedgers, in contrast, are merchants and processors who have made formal commitments to deliver a specified quantity of raw material or processed goods at a later date at a price currently agreed upon and who do not now have the stocks of the raw material necessary to fulfill their forward commitment. The parties who have made the commitment generally seek to hedge against the risk of price rise in the raw material between the time of making the forward contract and the time of acquiring the raw material stocks for fulfilling the contract. The hedging is done by buying futures contracts of the raw material equal in quantity to what is needed to fulfill the forward commitment.

The question arises under what circumstances the long hedger might prefer the purchase of futures to the alternative of immediately buying the raw material through spot or forward purchase to meet the obligations of his forward sale. He may prefer buying futures to buying in the cash market (spot or forward) if current cash prices are high because of scarcity. Generally there is an increase in the amount of long hedging when, as the season advances, spot prices rise, inventory holdings fall, and the new crop is not yet available. Long hedging is not as risk-reducing as it may appear at first sight. The long hedger processor, for example, who buys raw material futures to satisfy his forward commitment of the processed good may find that the raw material delivered to him in futures is not of suitable grade and quality to meet the obligations of the forward sale. Quite often, therefore, he may sell his futures contract and purchase raw material of the grade needed. If the spot price of the raw material moves unfavourably relative to the price of the processed good sold forward by him, the long hedger actually increases the risk by buying futures instead of buying the raw material in the cash market. Long hedging, unlike short hedging, may serve to increase risk, and the total risk on long hedging increases with the size of the commitment.

The volume of short hedging tends to be large when stocks in commercial hands are large and when the cash price is below the futures price; a reversal in this situation brings a decline. Conversely, the volume of long hedging is large when stocks are small and the cash price is above the futures price. Short hedging has a marked seasonal pattern, reaching a peak when commercial stocks are largest and the basis is favourable and then declining as the season advances. The seasonal pattern is less marked in long hedging. Generally there is an excess of short over long hedging during the bulk of the crop year.

Apart from hedgers, the futures market includes speculators, and these can also be classified in two categories, namely, long and short speculators. The long speculators are those who expect the price to rise above the current level and assume risks by purchasing futures contracts. Short speculators are those who expect the price to fall. They sell futures contracts. In a futures market the total short selling position, made up of short hedgers and short speculators, and the total long buying position, made up of long hedgers and long speculators, must always be equal. Any excess of short over long hedging must be balanced by an equal excess of long over short speculation. Since short hedging exceeds long hedging for most of the crop year, hedgers are generally short and speculators, therefore, are generally long.

Futures markets have flourished and become important in commodities where sizeable inventories have to be stored and carried forward for meeting the consumption needs of the entire season. Successful futures trading requires a large volume with low transaction costs and that spot and futures prices be well correlated in order to make hedging effective.