If there is one thing to talk about in the grain markets, it is volatility.

Prices crashed and burned Monday, and mostly are showing follow-through Tuesday. This is the biggest correction in a long time, and it is unwanted by anyone trying to buy grain or anyone trying to sell grain.

Everyone expects me to tell them the future of the grain markets, and the future is murky to me.

So, it is a typical Tuesday morning. Here at 9 a.m., I have made the fresh-ground one-third real Colombian Supreme and two-thirds decaf hazelnut coffee. I have turned my contracts in to Bruce. I have talked to a dog food plant about a misapplied ticket and to a trucker about pickup numbers. I have talked [...]

The stock market took another dive, and it took the grains with it.

Watching the grain markets these days is like watching that optimistic kid digging through that pile of manure: There must be a pony in here somewhere! Somewhere in the pile of manure that is the Chicago Board of Trade these days (I am waiting for their representative to Google this and give me a call!), [...]

There is nothing in the grain commodity markets to indicate a return to what we now know are high prices.

A few weeks ago I said the bottom would be put in this sick market when the trade realized that the crop production estimate for corn and beans was too high. I am marking my diary that I finally got something right. Mark your calendars that the low is in. On the night of Oct. [...]

The soybean harvest is dragging along and corn harvest is having trouble getting fired up. Meanwhile, there is no enthusiasm for the crop in the Chicago Board of Trade building on LaSalle Street in Chicago. USDA last week pronounced larger crops than expected in corn and beans. I remain dubious, as I watch the Bellevue [...]

When a grain trader talks about harvest pressure, he is referring to the effect on the futures markets on the Chicago Board of Trade brought about by farmers taking grain to town and elevators selling futures to hedge it. The effect is normally to force down the price of futures since there is more need [...]