Speculators Drive Sugar Prices to 30-Year High

[The Straight Story]

Speculators Drive Sugar Prices to 30-Year High

The price of sugar has reached its highest peak in 30 years, thanks to “parasitic” computer traders whose micro-fraction buying and selling has manipulated the cost of the commodity.

Fed up with the situation, the World Sugar Committee lashed out at high-frequency traders, saying their intention only is “to enrich themselves” at the expense of others.

Using powerful computers and complex algorithms, the controversial traders conduct market transactions in a fraction of a second and exploit minute price discrepancies. The high-tech trading can be lucrative, but at the expense of traditional commodity traders, as well as consumers buying sugar.

Before the advent of high-frequency trading, the price of sugar rarely fluctuated. A decade ago it took the sugar market six months to move two cents. But in the past three months alone, it shifted two cents in just one day—on five occasions. Last week, it moved this much in a single second.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Speculators_Drive_Sugar_Prices_to_30_Year_High_110210

[ixion]

1. Speculators are destroying the Earth

and I mean that quite literally.

[DCBob]

2. High freq traders affects all financial markets adversely..

The practice should be banned.. imo.

[marmar]

3. This sickness cannot continue......

An order that allows the essentials of life to be gamed by Wall Street is an order that must be defeated.

[DenverDad]

7. Precisely my concern

[mindem]

4. Hey, we need to de-regulate them.

Then they'll stop doing it. After all, de-regulation fixes everything.

[HereSince1628]

6. Absolutely right.

Once deregulated their organized crime units will be able to sell contraband sugar for cheap prices on the street and also get payola from confectionaries and bakeries in order to guarantee supply.

This could lead to gangland bloodshed, as the product assumes the price of backwoods meth, but since it would be criminals killing criminals, it's a win-win. Just like Chicago during prohibition.


:sarcasm:

[Vinca]

5. Sugar you can avoid. Heat when it's below zero, not so much.

The Wall Street casino is bringing down this country.

[katnapped]

8. But according to the government

No problem at all with that! The proles who've been living high on the hog will just have to learn to live with less (or nothing)

[WatsonT]

9. Meh

sugar isn't a necessity. If this were a grain or oil or some other staple that could actually kill people I would be more interested.