Continued flooding, especially in Iowa, has the market focusing on the size of the corn crop and traders taking prices to new all-time highs. Once more, we talk about history being made before our eyes. The December corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade has made eight consecutive all-time highs. This is beyond amazing. [...]

With planting caught up, the traders on the Chicago Board of Trade are switching their attention to the condition of the crop.

Soybean prices on the Chicago Board of Trade adjusted Monday, May 19, to the Double Whammy of planting progress and Argentine news.

Planting progress improved dramatically in the U.S. last week. That was the news out after the close of trading on the Chicago Board of Trade Monday. Prices for corn made new all-time highs last week in response to slow corn planting. That trend was broken Monday, as private estimates of crop progress hit the market. [...]

Rain patterns across the Midwest have seriously delayed plantings, and have jerked around markets.

April 28, corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were up nearly 23 cents, the soybeans were down 42 and a fraction, and the wheat futures were up more than 25 cents.

One thing grain markets have done the last few months is exhaust the supply of superlatives used to describe them. What do you use after “record,” “all-time record,” “blow-off,” or “amazing?” What do you do after you predict the top three or four times, only to have prices blow through it? What comes after the [...]

A simple definition of volatility in the grain markets would be the rate of price change over time.