You should know if you trade commodity futures what the contract expiration dates are.
After all if you are trading Lean Hogs and you forget you could end up with 40,000 pounds of carcasses on your door step – which is not my idea of a good day.
Actually you would have to work pretty hard for this to happen. Your broker keeps a very close idea on your open positions and will likely inform you to exit your position or roll over your contract so as to avoid exactly this delivery issue. Remember if you were short you would need to actually have to have the required quantity and quality of the deliverable commodity on hand.
I like to play it safe and make sure that I am fully aware of the expiration dates.
Well in a funny turn of events a Hedge Fund had taken delivery, somewhat forcibly, of a ship as payment! That’s right Elliott Capital Management took control of the ARA Libertad, a training ship owned by the Argentine navy, whilst it was docked in Ghana.
Argentina have been avoiding paying for a 2001 bond and after a recent court hearing Elliot Capital Management went all pirate and seized the assets.
So even if you are a Sovereign State know that the debt collectors will find you.
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