Is there a traded commodity called Q?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve been told that there is a market that trades a commodity (although I’ve been told, it’s an intangible commodity whatever that means) called Q.

And it’s traded in North America.

It’s not Qwest Communications which has the ticker symbol of Q.

Any ideas?

2

QQQ is the symbol for the NASDAQ-100 Trust – but that’s not a commodity. Do you actually mean commodities trading, or are you using the word some other way?

3

No, supposedly this is a very lightly traded commodity and done in only one market. And it’s not a commodity in the traditional sense of the word. It’s not like it’s soybeans or something.

4

“Q” seems to be the symbol for “August” – i.e., August delivery on futures commodities (of any sort). January = F, February = G, … July = N, August = Q,…

5

Thanks, but that wasn’t it either.

Q is a distinct thing I’ve been told. I think it’s some measure of human activity or behavior that is related to economics.

Either that or this person who asked me about is wasting my time and everybody else’s.

6

There is a company called Marketing Evaluations that rates celebrities, brands and TV programs according to their Q Scores (http://www.qscores.com/) which is a measure of their familiarity and appeal.

Is that what you’re thinking of?

7

Oh! You may mean the Q that is used in economics to mean “social capital”; here’s a paper I found (PDF file): http://deit.economia.unife.it/quaderni/2002/13.pdf

8

How the heck wopuld you quantify that?

9

The social capital idea sounds more a long the lines of what it could, but I agree with Sunspace that such activity would be hard to quantify.

10

There is no way that social capital is being traded. I’d be willing to be that the OP is thinking about the melding of the Q-scores that SMTWTFS is talking about and the Hollywood Stock Exchange which is now offering research services similar to Q-scores.

11

It wasn’t the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

I have since learned that Q is traded in an NYC exchange. In just one pit. And it is traded in very large lots.

12

And I also believe that Q is a derivative. I’m beginning to think that it is QQQ and the person remembered it wrong.