Information Resources
Information below is from sources believed to be reliable but are not affiliated with Great Lakes Trading Company, Inc. (GLTC). GLTC assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions.   Links are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.

Margin Requirements

All margin requirements are subject to change without notice.  
 
CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange/Chicago Board of Trade) Margins on all contracts

Below links based on specific futures contract group
Grains, financial (bonds, notes etc.), metals
note: mini contracts are located on above links also
Forest Products
Meats & Dairy 
Ag spreads intra-commodity,  Inter-Commodity/Inter-Exchange
Stock Indexes,  Stock Indexes intra-commodity,  inter-commodity/inter-exchange

Euroyen
Eurodollars
Eurodollars intra-commodity, Eurodollars inter-commodity/inter-exchange

Currencies  Currency intra-commodity
Currency inter-commodity/inter-exchange

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New York Mercantile Exchange & Comex Exchange -  
(please note you will need to click on the market tab at top to get at NYMEX margins, site will not allow direct linking)
Exchange wide margin requirements 

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New York Board of Trade:

Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa, Orange Juice, Cotton, BFP Milk, NYSE(NYFE), US Dollar Index, Russell 1000, PSE Tech, CRB-Bridge Index (scroll to bottom of link for spread margins)

Kansas City Board of Trade - Hard Red Winter Wheat, Value Line(stock index)

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Minneapolis Grain Exchange- White Wheat, Spring Wheat, Shrimp,

* Spot months are generally higher

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International F&O Exchanges

Bolsa de Derivados do Porto (BDP), Portugal

Mercado a Termino de Rosario, S.A. (Rosario Futures Exchange), Argentina

BM&F (Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros), Brazil

Deutsche Borse AG (DTB), Germany

Hong Kong Futures Exchange (HKFE)

International Petroleum Exchange of London, LTD. (IPE)

The London International Financial Futures & Options Exchange (LIFFE)

The London Metal Exchange Ltd. (LME)

Marche a Terme International de France (MATIF)

Montreal Exchange (ME)

New Zealand Futures & Options Exchange, Ltd. (NZFOE)

Osterreichische Termin-und Optionenborse

Singapore Commodity Exchange Ltd.(SICOM)

Singapore Derivatives Trading (SGX-DT)

Sydney Futures Exchange Ltd. (SFE)

The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM)

Tokyo International Financial Futures Exchange (TIFFE)

Toronto Futures Exchange (TFE)

Winnipeg Commodity Exchange (WPG)

South African Futures Exchange

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U.S. F&O Exchanges

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)

Chicago Board of Trade (CBT)

CBOT mini contracts

Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT)

Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGE)

Inter Contential Exchange (ICE), New York Board of Trade

New York Mercantile Exchange, NYMEX Div.(NYM), Comex Div.(CMX)

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Weather Links

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Options Links

Options info from Agribiz.com -- Immense amount of information on options with good links

Options calculator -- University of Illinois and Agribiz

Commodities Uncovered (educational fee based option site)

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Pit & Global News

White House economics briefing room - Easy access to government statistics.  I am not sure these will help a person with trading but I don't think it would hurt an individual to get an idea of the macro economics of the U.S.A.

Grains - Chicago Board of Trade grain pit news , 
                midday, daily, weekly CBOT commentary  

LIVESTOCK TRADING RESOURCES
BEEF, LEAN HOGS, DAIRY,  Lumber                                   

Chicago Board of Trade Financial Pits Comments:
CBOT financial and equity commentary
        
Energies - U.S. Dept. of Energy weekly statistics  
Natural Gas      
Petroleum    

Softs:  Cocoa, coffee, sugar, orange juice & Cotton         
2nd softs & cotton market information paper

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Educational Links

New to the Futures & Options markets? initial market primer from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Futures and Options Terminology, jargon link

Understanding Financial Risks of Investing

Understanding Risks of On-line Investing & trading

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Financial Book Stores

Windsor Publishing

Traders Press

University Resources

National Ag Risk Education Library
Agricultural Marketing & Risk Management

University of Illinois
(Office for futures and options research)

AgEcon Search
(From the University of Minnesota)
You can type in searches on many different topics, everything from futures and options, to crop and livestock economics, in order to search you will need to type in the following manner i.e. corn and (futures or options).

Financial Risk Management (Currencies, Bonds, etc.)

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Related Links

Moore Research Center, Inc.
Historical market research site, spreads, etc., some free, some subscription

USDA

USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
Provides information on international market of U.S. ag products

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Treasury

Fortucast.com (commodity advice site no affiliation to GLTC)

ISickels Purebred Sheep

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Price Charts

Chicago Board of Trade

Grains
Agricultural spreads
Financial
Financial spreads

Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Stock Indexes, Foreign Currencies, Livestock, Dairy,
Eurodollars, Euroyen

New York Mercantile Exchange
Metals, Energies

World Gold Quotes,Spot, Asian Gold markets, gold to currency converter
New York Board of Trade

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You should be aware that the risk of loss in trading commodity futures and (or) options contracts can be substantial. You may sustain a total loss of your initial margin funds and any additional funds that you deposit to establish or maintain a position in the commodities futures market.    In addition, market conditions may be such that your account can incur a negative balance. In this event you will be liable for any deficit in your account.   You should also be aware that the exercise of an options contract will result in a futures position.

You should study futures trading and consider all of your financial obligations in determining whether  the trading of commodity futures or options on said futures is appropriate for you. Since the risk factor is high in futures trading, only genuine "risk funds" should be used.

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