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Topic: contango

An oil storage tank farm
Markets
Thursday, 7/23, 07:16 AM

Contango and backwardation: what the shape of the futures curve tells you

  • A commodity does not have one futures price but many, one for each delivery month, and the shape they trace tells a story.
  • When later months cost more, the market is in contango; when they cost less, it is in backwardation.
  • That slope is one of the clearest signals of whether a commodity is abundant or scarce right now.

contango — news and stories on this topic

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