HEDGING WITH FUTURES AND OPTIONS UNDER A TRUNCATED CASH PRICE DISTRIBUTION

Many agricultural producers face cash price distributions that are effectively truncated at a lower limit through participation in farm programs designed to support farm prices and incomes. For example, the 1996 Federal Agricultural Improvement Act (FAIR) makes many producers eligible to obtain marketing loans which truncate their cash price realization at the loan rate, while allowing market prices to freely equilibrate supply and demand. This paper studies the effects of truncated cash price distributions on the optimal use of futures and options. The results show that truncation in the cash price distribution facing an individual producer provides incentives to trade options as well as futures. We derive optimal futures and options trading rules under options as well as futures. We derive optimal futures and options trading rules under a range of different truncation scenarios. Empirical results highlights the impacts of basis risk and yield risk on the optimal futures and options portfolio.farm programs, futures, hedging, options, truncation, Marketing,

Physiological responses at various lactate markers for running at 4 and 8 minute treadmill increments

We compared physiological responses corresponding to speeds at plasma lactate markers between incrementa l treadmill running of 4 and 8 min stages in fifteen healthy men (23 ± 4 yrs , 1.78 ± 0.49 m, 72.7 ± 10.8 kg).Treadmill speed, oxygen uptake ( V O 2 ), heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and plasma lactate were measured for each stage, and calculated at: fixed blood lactate accumulation (FBLA) 4.0 mmol/L , an initial 1 mmol/L rise, deviation maximum (D max ), lactate t hreshold (LT) and log - log LT. There was no effect ( p >0.05) of stage duration on speed, V O 2 , HR and RPE at fixed markers. For 8 min stages, speed was lower at modelled markers: D max ( - 1.1 km/ h; p= 0.001), LT ( - 0.9 km/ h ; p=0 .008) and log - log LT ( - 0.8 km/h; p=0 .006), yet RPE was higher and V O 2 lower for LT (1.1, p= 0.02 ; - 0.27 L/ min, p= 0.01 ) and log - log LT (1.4, p= 0.03 ; - 0.29 L/min , p= 0.002). Lactate and V O 2 were greater at 8 km/h for 4 min ( p= 0.000 1), then similar until 11 km/ h , with a trend towards elevated plasma lactate for 4 min thereafter. When applying lactate threshold markers to assess physiological responses to incremental running, protocols using prolonged stage durations may underestimate marker running spee

A pendant proton shuttle on [Fe4N(CO)12]- alters product selectivity in formate vs. H2 production via the hydride [H-Fe4N(CO)12].

Proton relays are known to increase reaction rates for H2 evolution and lower overpotentials in electrocatalytic reactions. In this report we describe two electrocatalysts, [Fe4N(CO)11(PPh3)]- (1-) which has no proton relay, and hydroxyl-containing [Fe4N(CO)11(Ph2P(CH2)2OH)]- (2-). Solid state structures indicate that these phosphine-substituted clusters are direct analogs of [Fe4N(CO)12]- where one CO ligand has been replaced by a phosphine. We show that the proton relay changes the selectivity of reactions: CO2 is reduced selectively to formate by 1- in the absence of a relay, and protons are reduced to H2 under a CO2 atmosphere by 2-. These results implicate a hydride intermediate in the mechanism of the reactions and demonstrate the importance of controlling proton delivery to control product selectivity. Thermochemical measurements performed using infrared spectroelectrochemistry provided pKa and hydricity values for [HFe4N(CO)11(PPh3)]-, which are 23.7, and 45.5 kcal mol-1, respectively. The pKa of the hydroxyl group in 2- was determined to fall between 29 and 41, and this suggests that the proximity of the proton relay to the active catalytic site plays a significant role in the product selectivity observed, since the acidity alone does not account for the observed results. More generally, this work emphasizes the importance of substrate delivery kinetics in determining the selectivity of CO2 reduction reactions that proceed through metal-hydride intermediates