FUTURESBUZZ.COM
FIGURE 1: THE HOMEPAGE OF FUTURESBUZZ.COM
Perhaps there will never come a day when mainstream information and news about the futures and commodities markets will rival the information and news available about the equity markets.
Until then, futures and commodities traders -- current and aspiring -- will have to rely on websites like FuturesBuzz.com to keep abreast of the diverse set of information and datapoints they need to get and stay ahead of the game.
FuturesBuzz.com was founded back in 2000. According to its founders, the website's original goal was twofold: First, they wanted to create a one-stop portal for traders looking for sound, articulate information on the futures and commodities markets. But second, the founders of FuturesBuzz.com wanted to alert traders to a major problem in their industry: disreputable brokers. As they wrote in the "About Us" section of the website:
"By telling the stories on how they defrauded investors, we believe this will make investors more aware and hopefully avoid some of these schemes."
In a few short years, FuturesBuzz.com has grown from a futures truth squad to that one-stop portal for those looking for charts, research, market commentary, and analysis, as well as some of the basic "what you need to know to trade futures" material such as commitment of traders reports, trading calendars, and specifications for futures contracts.
FuturesBuzz.com still maintains its reformist character, most notably with its "Check Broker's Complaint History" section. But even a glance at the website will reveal how much broader FuturesBuzz.com has become. The website's content is broken down into a few main categories: Updated Data [sic], Industry News, Trading Resources, FuturesBuzz.com, and Research. While these are categories rather than "departments," they do reflect the kind of information available through FuturesBuzz as well as the kind of information futures traders often demand.
The Updated Data section features links to quotes and charts, Commitment of Traders reports, fundamentally oriented commodity research, and market commentary from analysts from a variety of brokerages and advisory organizations -- even academia. Another interesting feature is a ranking of performance by managed funds -- managed commodity funds being one of the main tools investors use in order to gain access to the commodities markets. The charts provided are not just the traditional three- to nine-month bar charts, but also include seasonal and long-term charts. The seasonal charts chronicle commodity activity going back decades (for example, the sugar seasonal chart goes back to 1963). The long-term charts are similarly tasty, with monthly data for most commodities going back into the 1970s.
The Industry News section includes news (much of it in the form of press releases) from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA). The information here is mostly related to the mechanics of the futures industry. There is also an interesting subsection called "In Defense Of ..." which, while updated less frequently, revolves around some of the controversies and debates taking place within the futures industry. For example, one recent essay discussed the First Amendment fight between the CFTC versus online financial newsletter publishers and software designers.
A "WatchDog Corner" is a sort of America's Most Wanted of crooked financial professionals and relates what the website authors refer to as "some of the more interesting complaints" the CFTC has filed against both individuals and organizations. By studying some of these cases, FuturesBuzz.com suggests, average retail traders will be better able to defend themselves against the con artists and charlatans who from time to time slither into the futures business.
The Trading Resources section features a good amount of basic information for traders, such as contract specifications, trading calendars, a glossary of futures and commodities terminology, and primers on options and single-stock futures. The Research category is mostly an opportunity for website visitors to subscribe (a free trial is available) to a seasonal research service.
FuturesBuzz.com isn't a fancy futures website. But the site does seem to make the most of its contributors; there is a diverse array of market commentators and charts (the charts come courtesy of Barcharts.com). But futures traders, or aspiring futures traders, who are looking for a solid source of basic futures information -- and a few observations on the various futures markets from professionals who know better -- will do themselves a big favor by bookmarking FuturesBuzz.com just to check in every now and then and see what the buzz in a given market is all about.
--David Penn, Technical Writer
Originally published in the November 2004 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2004, Technical Analysis, Inc.