As we wait for the USDA Planting Intentions Report, which is due March 31, we are seeing bullish enthusiasm return to the markets.

The basic problem with writing a grain marketing column for (gulp) 22 years is that readers start to assume the writer knows something. The danger is actually that the writer starts to think he knows something.

We seem to be locked into trading ranges on the Chicago Board of Trade. In absence of news, the market cycles higher and lower, leaving few clues to assist our trading.

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!), is […]

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