# Saw a list of th world's most traded commodities, how can it be right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2015, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059 "2015-11-30T21:41:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059/21 "2015-12-02T16:46:38Z")
Price volatility results in lots of trading, because there is money to be made in accurately anticipating the ups and downs. Also consumers of a commodity will want to hedge against high prices in the future, so they will be interested in buying futures contracts. For example airlines may (and have) invest in fuel futures to protect against large increases in fuel price. Coffee is subject to great variations in supply (and so price) due to unpredictable weather. This causes the price to fluctuate a lot, so there is much interest in futures trading…both from actual consumers (wholesale level) and commodity speculators. Iron deposits are found in almost every country, and so local issues have little effect on the global supply. This results in a fairly stable price, and so little incentive to speculate. There are lots of shuttered mines and recycling opportuninties that can be put back into production fairly quickly if the market price warrants, so even increases in demand don’t move the price a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059/22 "2015-12-02T16:53:11Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > Basically, it’s a casino game where people are playing with chips representing units of coffee instead of chips representing money. And it’s totally legal to play anywhere, and the game itself is connected loosely to the real world economy, so degenerate gamblers can sometimes play the game so hard they crash the economy for everybody else. Oh, and the house is always coming up with new variants on the game (“financial innovations”) to suck in more gamblers… This is a ridiculous statement. Exchange traded futures markets did not cause the economic meltdown of 2008. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059/23 "2015-12-02T18:53:46Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > [http://www.rogersfamilyco.com/index.php/know-top-ten-traded-commodities/](http://www.rogersfamilyco.com/index.php/know-top-ten-traded-commodities/) > Really, gold is number four but basic building materials like lumber, steel/iron, and aluminum don’t even make the list? That doesn’t sound right at all. Coffe being number two also really surprised me. There’s only ten on the list, so something has to start at eleven. As for gold, maybe that’s because gold isn’t just consumed for industrial uses, but held and then traded again. This could include that kind of gold, not just newly mined gold. So some gold could be counted again and again. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059/24 "2015-12-02T21:29:15Z")
> [@Trom](#): > > This is a ridiculous statement. Exchange traded futures markets did not cause the economic meltdown of 2008. Not ones on the commodities market. But the securitization of mortgages that allowed them to be more easily traded on exchanges has a whole lot to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059/25 "2015-12-03T02:43:38Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Can’t anyone take a joke anymore!? Only if you got one. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059/26 "2015-12-04T03:48:13Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > Not ones on the commodities market. But the securitization of mortgages that allowed them to be more easily traded on exchanges has a whole lot to do with it. Mortgage backed securities are not exchange traded. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saw-a-list-of-th-worlds-most-traded-commodities-how-can-it-be-right/739059.md?page=1)