Contango and normal backwardation refer to the pattern of prices over time, specifically if the price of the contract is rising or falling.

The shape of the futures curve is important to commodity hedgers and speculators. Both care about whether commodity futures markets are contango markets or normal backwardation markets. This isn't ...

This notion that backwardation (that is, when distant deliveries trade at a discount to nearby deliveries, see "The Battle Against Contango") is somehow "normal" for a storable commodity is, to ...

Home Market Outlook Commodities Normal Backwardation Foiled Going Forward Sep. 17, 2013 11:53 AM ETCRUD, USO1 Comment Christopher Holt 222Followers ...

Normal backwardation occurs when the price of a futures contract is lower than the anticipated spot price of the underlying asset at the contract's maturity date.

Backwardation indicates the futures curve is falling, with spot markets and short-term futures contracts priced higher than longer-dated contracts.

But now, things are once again returning to the ‘normal’ state of backwardation — a move which has been interpreted by the market as a return to tight fundamentals.

In the world of commodities, the differential between one delivery period and another for the same raw material can go by different names, but they all have the same meaning.

Oil markets are in “backwardation” — we’ll explain Geopolitical conflict is interfering with crude oil futures, causing oil prices to be lower in the future than they are today.

Their own chief contention, though, is that indexing has caused the virtual disappearance of the old-fashioned net-long “normal backwardation” as a source of once-steady average profit for ...

Gold’s forward curve rarely forms a backwardated structure but it’s flirting with the formation all the more frequently since Covid-19 struck.

Contango and backwardation are terms used in commodity futures markets. Learn more about futures trading and what these terms mean for hedgers and speculators.