Commodities have been around since man knew how to use tools and that's a long time ago. Commodities started as a way to trade goods and services but have evolved into an investment vehicle. They have come a long way since the ancient Greeks and Romans used them to trade goods. The price of commodities can be affected by a number of things and an important one is "Contango". This blog will look at what contango is and what affects it.The word contango was coined in the 1970s by Jim Dines, a commodity futures trader. Dines used the term in reference to the contango shape of the forward curve, which is a futures curve where the distant months are higher priced, or more expensive, than the nearby months. The futures curve is a graphical representation of the prices available for the future delivery of a commodity.
