Guest - Dan Manternach
Dan Manternach is a seasoned, independent agricultural economist, speaker and author. A graduate of Iowa State University, Dan was raised on a diversified grain and livestock farm in northeast Iowa. During his 40-year career, he has been an executive with four of the top ag market advisory services in the U.S., served as part-time adjunct instructor in futures and options trading for commercial risk management at the University of Northern Iowa, and provided consultation to the U.S. Grains Council on a trade mission to China. Dan has extensive experience offering risk management counsel on major field crops, hogs and cattle. He leads grain marketing seminars, courses and lectures across the Midwest.
New Generation Contracts Could Meet 4 of Your Marketing Challenges
During the past 20 years or so, a host of new types of marketing contracts have been offered by major grain companies or professional marketing advisory services. In fact, new ones are still being developed and offered today. All fall under the umbrella of what’s called “new generation contracts” (N
The 3 Types of Risk in Grain Marketing
There are, primarily, three different types of market risk you can face in choosing the wisest marketing tool for the job at hand. They are: Futures market risk Basis risk Opportunity risk Futures Market Risk Whether you have a futures trading account or not, your primary price risk is in the futu
Pro Tips for the Technical Side of Grain Marketing
If you're now well-versed in "the bar chart basics" of technical analysis to follow the ag commodities markets, the next step is to better understand a few of the pro tips to navigating the technical side of the grain markets. And how to think of them a little differently. Here's how technical st
How To Identify Long-term Commodity Cycles
Because there are so many variables in supply and demand for ag commodities globally, it’s no easy task for the laws of economics to precisely balance supply and demand from year to year. Instead, mankind relies on market signals to either slow usage and stimulate production via higher prices or enc
The ABC's of Technical Analysis in Crop Marketing
First, be aware that there are purists among fundamental analysts who place all their faith in basic economic principles of supply and demand and often scoff, “All the ships that sank at sea had plenty of charts on board.” They see charts as little more than a scorecard showing whether market bulls
The 5 Key Components of Grain Market Analysis
Cynics often remark that the key to making a small fortune in futures trading is to start out with a large one, and it’s understandable. Sometimes it seems like a never-ending poker game between bulls always wanting to bet on higher prices and bears always betting on lower ones. But here’s a key tr
The ABC's of Futures and Options Terminology
Making sense out of crop marketing terms, like hedgers versus speculators, puts versus calls, derivative marketing tools and option premiums, can leave you scratching your head. But not understanding these terms can also complicate how you might make your next move in the markets. In this post, we'l
The True History and Utility of Futures
If farmers want to move ahead of today's global grain trading environment, one of the first things to do is to better understand the history of where it all began. The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was launched way back in 1848 by a group of 25 Chicago businessmen. It stemmed from shortcomings in t