MANAGED STRATEGIES

Hedging Strategies

Practical strategies designed to help protect portfolios, businesses, and investment capital from market risk.

The goal is a narrower range of outcomes

A hedge is not a trade you expect to make money on. It is a position taken so that a price move you cannot control does less damage to something you already own — a crop in the ground, inventory on the water, a contract priced six months out, a portfolio concentrated in one sector.

That distinction changes how a hedge should be judged. A hedge that loses money while the physical business gains has done exactly its job. Clients who forget this tend to lift hedges at the worst moment, which is why we spend as much time on the plan and the documentation as on the execution.

Our hedging work is built around your calendar — harvest, contract dates, inventory turns, loan covenants — not a model's. We are an independent brokerage with nothing proprietary to place, so if a hedge is unnecessary or over-sized we have no reason not to say so.

What we handle

Mapping the exposure, sizing the hedge ratio, choosing between futures and options structures, building the rollover schedule, coordinating margin lines and bona fide hedge treatment with the clearing firm, and monitoring the position against the physical business as it changes.

HEDGING APPROACHES

Commercial Hedges

Producers · Processors

For businesses whose margin sits between two prices they do not set. Short hedges to lock a selling price, long hedges to fix an input cost, sized to the portion of production or usage you actually want fixed — rarely all of it.

Portfolio Overlays

Concentration · Sector risk

Index or sector positions placed against a holding you do not want to sell, for tax, control or timing reasons. Reduces the exposure without triggering the disposal.

Basis & Calendar Management

Timing · Local price

The futures hedge handles the flat price; basis and the roll handle the rest. Managing which contract month you sit in, and when you move, is where a lot of hedging outcomes are actually decided.

Collars & Reduced-Cost Structures

Floor · Capped upside

Buying protection and selling away some of the favourable move to pay for it. Appropriate when the priority is certainty rather than participation, and when premium is hard to justify outright.

MARKETS WE HEDGE

Agriculture

Corn · Soybeans · Wheat · Cattle · Coffee · Sugar

Energy

Crude oil · Natural gas · Diesel · Gasoline

Metals

Copper · Aluminium · Gold · Silver

Interest Rates

Treasury notes and bonds · SOFR

Currencies

Euro · Yen · Peso · Commodity currencies

Equity Index

S&P 500 · Nasdaq 100 · Russell 2000

Markets listed are representative of those available through our clearing relationships and are not recommendations. Hedge effectiveness depends on the relationship between the contract used and your actual exposure, which is the first thing we examine.

HOW A HEDGING PROGRAM GETS BUILT

Exposure

What you own or owe, in what quantity, priced when. Usually a spreadsheet exercise before any market discussion.

Design

Hedge ratio, instrument and structure, and explicitly what is left unhedged and why. Written down so it survives a volatile week.

Documentation

Account opening, margin line, bona fide hedge treatment and reporting coordinated with your clearing firm and accountant.

Monitoring

Rollover schedule, margin calls, and revisions as the physical position changes. The hedge follows the business, not the reverse.

Is hedging the right tool?

Hedging is the appropriate answer when you already carry price risk you did not choose. It is the wrong answer when what you actually want is exposure — and that is a more common confusion than you might expect.

Often a reasonable fit

  • A business whose margin depends on a price you do not control
  • Inventory, production or forward contracts with dates attached
  • A concentrated holding you cannot or will not sell
  • A lender or board that wants price certainty documented

Usually not a fit

  • A wish to profit from a price view — that is a futures strategy, not a hedge
  • Exposure too small or too irregular to justify contract sizes
  • No capacity to meet margin calls when the hedge moves against you
  • Unwillingness to hold the hedge through a move that looks wrong

Risk disclosure. Hedging with futures and options involves substantial risk and is not suitable for every business or investor. A hedge reduces exposure to price movement but does not eliminate risk: basis risk, margin calls on adverse moves, and imperfect correlation between the contract and your actual exposure can all produce losses, and a hedge may perform worse than no hedge at all. You may lose more than your initial deposit. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Hedge accounting and tax treatment depend on your circumstances and should be reviewed with your own accountant. Nothing on this page is a recommendation or a solicitation in any jurisdiction where such an offer would be unlawful.

Let’s Build Your Strategy

Tell us what you’re trying to accomplish. We’ll help you determine the appropriate strategy and execution approach.