BUS323 Energy and Commodity Market Analysis

Through this course, students will gain a broad theoretical and applied competence to carry out commodity market analyzes, risk management and investments. By covering all major commodity classes (energy, metals, agriculture/foods/softs), students will learn how to analyze pricing, price relationships, trading, and investments over a wide array of commodities. Focus will be on economic as well as institutional facts and issues. Each student (in groups of three) is given a specific commodity (or a group of related commodities) to follow and is expected to obtain a comprehensive knowledge of how and where the commodity is produced and consumed, how the commodity is traded internationally, who are the major participants in the markets, what are the price relationships over time and across commodities etc. The futures markets will play a key role throughout the course. After having taken the course, students will have acquired detailed knowledge and competence when it comes to hedging and investing in the futures markets. This competence will be developed through the students’ active participation in a close to real-life investment game at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In order to be successful in this investment game, students will have to follow closely economic and geopolitical factors that may have an impact on both short and long term market developments. In this respect, the course sets out to be an advanced "hands-on" learning process for future commodity producers, traders, investors and all those for whom the understanding of commodity markets is important.