SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Over the course of the previous decade, price fluctuations on international commodity markets have been observed to be significantly higher than in the decades before. While in the 1980’s and 90’s price dynamics on these markets could almost entirely be explained by supply and demand alone, special emphasis has also been placed on commodity future trading as an explanatory factor in recent years. It is the aim of this survey to identify possible auxiliary approaches for increasing market transparency and preventing market abuse. Therefore, the size of the market as well as its relevance is assessed in a first step along with the relative importance of individual groups of investors and commodities. An in-depth evaluation of the existing scientific literature then provides an overview over possible means for increasing price stability especially through an increase in market transparency and the limitation of potential market manipulations. Finally, additional approaches are analyzed that have been the subject of recent discussions or have already been implemented in other markets (e.g. electricity market) or countries (e.g. USA). Throughout this survey, institutional knowledge is acquired by interviewing market participants and analyzing expert sentiments in order to further the understanding of investment decisions and market structures. The research project is conducted in cooperation with the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and True North Partners LLC.