Agricultural Finance - (Wiley Finance) by Helyette Geman (Hardcover)

About the Book

-Agricultural Finance is the only book which comprehensively deals with worldwide agriculture markets, spikes in agricultural commodity prices, trading strategies (CTAs and others), the agribusiness industry, the challenges of feeding the planet as well as the fascinating subjects of land, water, fertilizers, biofuels and ethanol. Given their importance to human life, cycles in agricultural commodity prices are very different from the likes of copper or crude oil.With over 15 chapters the book will feature topics such as agricultural insurance, energy, shipping and bunker prices, sustainability, ethanol, water, investments in land, fertilizers, soft commodities such as sugar, coffee; rubber; agricultural policies, subsidies, econometrics and agricultural derivatives and farming risk-management.Contents will also include chapters on:1.-Futures, options on Agricultural Commodities and Risk-Management in Farming and Agribusiness-2. Real Options in Land and Valuation of Physical Assets, Crushers and Storage Facilities 3. Structured Products and ETFs on Agricultural Commodities4. Trade Finance in an Era of Credit Shortage5. Securitization and Commodity- Linked Notes6 Grains (wheat, corn, soybeans)7 Softs: Coffee, Cocoa, Cotton8. Shipping as a Key component of Agricultural trade; the Major Routes and the Costs---

Book Synopsis

A comprehensive resource for understanding the complexities of agricultural finance

Agricultural Finance: From Crops to Land, Water, and Infrastructure is a pioneering book that offers a comprehensive resource for understanding the worldwide agriculture markets, from spikes in agricultural commodity prices to trading strategies, and the agribusiness industry generally to the challenges of feeding the planet in particular. The book also goes in-depth on the topics of land, water, fertilizers, biofuels, and ethanol. Written by Helyette Geman--an industry expert in commodity derivatives--this book explores the agricultural marketplace and the cycles in agricultural commodity prices that can be the key to investor success.

This resource addresses a wide range of other important topics as well, including agricultural insurance, energy, shipping and bunker prices, sustainability, investments in land, subsidies, agricultural derivatives, and farming risk-management. Other topics covered include structured products and agricultural commodities ETFs; trade finance in an era of credit shortage; securitization and commodity-linked notes; grains: wheat, corn, soybeans; softs: coffee, cocoa, cotton; shipping as a key component of agricultural trade; and the major agricultural shipping routes and the costs. The book:

• Offers the first comprehensive resource that deals with the all aspects of agricultural finance
• Includes information that is crucial for pension funds, asset managers, hedge funds, agribusiness corporates, CTAs and regulators
• Covers a range of topics from agricultural bunker prices, futures, options to major shipping routes and the costs

This text is a must-have resource for accessing the information required to trade successfully in the agricultural marketplace.

From the Back Cover

Agriculture is the most important asset class both for the world population and as an investment vehicle for pension funds and other financial institutions, and yet it receives little serious attention. Agricultural Finance is a comprehensive resource on the topic, addressing all relevant factors from both conceptual and technical -perspectives. This book also introduces the major agricultural commodities and provides essential background information on their pricing cycles, risk factors, markets, trade routes, and outlooks.

The global population is projected to reach 9 billion before 2050, and food is a pressing economic, social, -political, and moral issue. You will learn in Agricultural Finance what this unprecedented situation means for commodity exchanges, agribusiness equities, and a whole range of derivatives and complex instruments, including:

• Successful calendar spread and Futures-based strategies
• Swaptions and accumulators
• Crush spreads and quanto options
• Commodity-specific issues in corn, soybeans, coffee, sugar, cotton, and fertilizers
• Infrastructure development and digital farming around the world
• Real options contained in the ownership of physical assets in agriculture

Deregulation of electricity and natural gas markets created an explosion of new products in the 2000s; world food needs are bringing to this decade innovative agriculture-related instruments and strategies in the management of physical assets and infrastructure.

Written by one of the world's top derivatives experts, Agricultural Finance accounts for every eventuality. You'll learn how weather patterns, country risk, government price subsidies, new players in land acquisition, and a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions can be worked into portfolio construction and quantitative pricing models. In the volatile world of agricultural commodities where weather risk is the dominant factor, investors who proceed with a solid foundation of knowledge will be the ones who will master this fascinating subject. Agricultural Finance will help you understand a space where demand can be made predictable and supply remains the key source of price uncertainty.

About the Author

HÉLYETTE GEMAN is Director of the Commodity Finance Centre at Birkbeck, University of London and Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University. She is a graduate of Ecole Normale Supérieure in Mathematics, holds a Masters degree in Theoretical Physics and a PhD in Probability from the University Pierre et Marie Curie; and a PhD in Finance from the University Paris Sorbonne.

Professor Geman has published more than 130 papers in top international finance, insurance and energy economics Journals, became in 1993 a Member of Honour of the French Society of Actuaries for her work on Catastrophic risk; received in 1994 the first Prize of the Merrill Lynch awards for her research on Asian and complex options; was named in 2004 in the Hall of Fame of Energy Risk. She has been a scientific advisor to major financial institutions, energy and mining companies and commodity houses for the last 21 years, covering the spectrum of interest rates, crude oil and natural gas, metals and agricultural, including water, fertilizers and land.

Her book Insurance and Weather Derivatives was published in 1999 by RISK Publications; her book entitled Commodities and Commodity Derivatives: Energy, Metals and Agriculturals published by Wiley Finance in 2005 has become the reference in industry and Master programmes worldwide.

Prof Geman counts among her PhD students Nassim Taleb. She is presently on the Board of a green energy company and an active participant in a 'precision farming' project involving 12,500 farmers in East Africa.