Quote from criveratrading:
and 83.5 was softer than prior trade around 84 last week or am i wrong?
another thing i'm very interested in gauging is the amount of premium or discount futures can usually hold against cash. before the rally cash was hovering around 80 and futures were around 78 , now with cash around 83.5 futures are 85.5 . What is the "pull to cash" typical with this?
seems the funds added 30% to their net longs.
Here are some links for cash, futures and basis:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/LSMNpubs/PDF_Daily/DCBS.pdf
http://www.ams.usda.gov/LSMNpubs/PDF_Daily/DFSS.pdf
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/livestock/pdf/b2-42.pdf
http://www.lmic.info/
Basis is a function of contract month, market conditions and a host of other marketing and trading factors. For instance, if it is May 1st the futures contract I have to use expires on June 30. The basis will be wider (generally) because we have 60 days until expiration of futures. Cash trade on May 1 won't necessarily have a large impact on the futures.