Just thought I’d do you all a favor and help expand your vocabulary. The word of the day, according to Addison Armstrong, director of market research for Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut, is “contango.”
And this is what the brains behind its Wikipedia entry say it is: “A term used in the futures market to describe an upward sloping forward curve (as in the normal yield curve). Such a forward curve is said to be ‘in contango’ (or sometimes ‘contangoed’).” A market in contango encourages companies to increase stockpiles.
Apparently, oil futures were in contango today because price for January delivery was $33.17 a barrel while the price for February delivery was $42.36 a barrel. If you have room to store a bunch of excess oil, you could make easy money by buying for January delivery and then re-selling it later at the higher February price point. But I guess the problem is that, due to decreased consumption, people are running out of places to store the stuff.
All this is meaningless to you and me. So, I’ll leave you with the word for the opposite of contango, which is “backwardation,” and now I’ll stop.
One reply on “Contango”
My teachers use to tell me that in order to remember a new word (increase my vocabulary), I should use it in a sentence. I am wondering how to apply catango to my life. Perhaps I should use it in conjunction with my gardening and canning/freezing. Was my garden in catango last summer and fall? Were our pear trees in catango?