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Advanced Commodity Trading: Spread Trading and Roll Yield

Most commodity traders bet on direction. Professionals trade relationships: one contract month against another, gold against silver, crude against its refined products. This course treats the futures curve as a trading surface. You will decompose futures returns into spot return, roll yield and collateral yield, see why a buy-and-roll position in crude can lose money even when spot prices rise, and learn to price, size and execute calendar, inter-commodity, crack, crush and inter-exchange spreads on MCX and NCDEX. It closes with the risks that blow spreads up, the Indian tax treatment of commodity futures, and how HNIs and family offices can use commodity carry as a portfolio sleeve. Built for experienced traders and investors who already understand futures pricing and cost of carry.

Commodity FuturesSpread TradingRoll YieldContango and BackwardationMCXNCDEXAlternative Investing
MODULES
6
DURATION
~5 hrs
TRACK
Alternative Investing

What You'll Master

How to read the MCX futures curve and what contango and backwardation signal about supply, storage and demand
How to decompose a commodity futures return into spot return, roll yield and collateral yield, and why roll yield dominates over long holding periods
How to price a calendar spread against cost-of-carry fair value and spot when it is mispriced
How to construct inter-commodity, crack, crush and inter-exchange spreads, including the USD/INR leg on MCX vs COMEX trades
How to size spread legs with matched ratios, manage legging and liquidity risk, and backtest a spread strategy
What makes spreads blow up, how commodity futures are taxed in India, and how to fit commodity carry into an HNI portfolio
Access Level
PRO
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Everything included
Full Text Playbooks
Actionable Exercises
Mobile Reading Mode
Lifetime Updates

Curriculum Breakdown

Chapter 1: The Futures Curve as a Trading Surface

4 Lessons
▶
Why Advanced Commodity Traders Trade Spreads, Not Direction11 min read
Preview
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Contango and Backwardation Revisited: What the Curve Shape Is Telling You12 min read
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Decomposing Futures Returns: Spot Return, Roll Yield and Collateral Yield13 min read
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Reading the MCX Curve: Contract Months, Liquidity and Where Spreads Actually Trade12 min read

Chapter 2: Roll Yield in Practice

4 Lessons
🔒
How Roll Yield Is Earned or Lost: A Month-by-Month Walkthrough13 min read
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The Rollover Decision: When, How and at What Cost on MCX12 min read
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Roll Yield in Crude, Gold and Base Metals: Why Each Behaves Differently12 min read
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Case Study: April 2020 WTI and the Cost of Holding the Front Month12 min read

Chapter 3: Calendar (Intra-Commodity) Spreads

4 Lessons
🔒
Anatomy of a Calendar Spread: Bull Spreads, Bear Spreads and Spread Charts12 min read
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Pricing a Calendar Spread With Cost of Carry: Fair Value vs Market13 min read
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Storage, Convenience Yield and Why Spreads Break Full Carry12 min read
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Margin Benefits and Spread Margin Rules on MCX11 min read

Chapter 4: Inter-Commodity and Processing Spreads

4 Lessons
🔒
Inter-Commodity Spreads: Gold-Silver Ratio and Crude-Natural Gas12 min read
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Crack Spreads: Trading the Refiner's Margin12 min read
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Crush Spreads and Agri Processing Margins on NCDEX12 min read
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Inter-Exchange Spreads: MCX vs COMEX and LME, and the Currency Leg13 min read

Chapter 5: Building, Sizing and Executing a Spread Trade

4 Lessons
🔒
From Thesis to Trade: Constructing a Spread With Entry, Target and Stop12 min read
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Ratio Sizing: Matching Lot Sizes, Contract Values and Units12 min read
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Execution Risk: Legging, Slippage and Illiquid Back Months11 min read
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Backtesting a Spread Strategy on Historical MCX Data13 min read

Chapter 6: Risk, Tax and Portfolio Context

3 Lessons
🔒
When Spreads Blow Up: Curve Inversions, Delivery Squeezes and Correlation Breaks12 min read
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Taxation of Commodity Futures Spreads in India: Business Income, CTT and Set-Off12 min read
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Commodity Carry as a Portfolio Sleeve for HNIs and Family Offices12 min read