This article describes a futures contract with a discrete termination or delivery date. View articles referencing this futures contract.

 

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Charles Armstrong

The Daily Angle

This article is about a specific futures contract. For wheat prices in general, see the article on Wheat Prices.

Kansas City Wheat Futures (alternately referred to as "KC Wheat," "KCBT Wheat," "Hard Red Winter Wheat," and "HRW Wheat") are traded on the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) under ticker symbol KW in cents per bushel.^[1] For electronic trading sessions, the symbol KE is used^[2]

The chart to the left shows Front Month Kansas City Wheat Futures prices on the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) in cents per bushels.

Delivery Dates

Kansas City Wheat futures contracts are delivered every year in March, May, July, September, and December.^[3]

The following is a table with Kansas City Wheat futures delivery dates and resultant tickers for 2009. For an explanation on commodity tickers see commodity ticker construction.

Contract Specifications

Contract Size

One hard red winter wheat futures contract on the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) is 5,000 bushels.^[3]

Daily Price Limit

The daily price limit for hard red wheat futures contracts on the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) is $.60 per bushel ($1500 per contract) above or below the previous day's settlement price.^[3] However, this limit increases fifty percent in the following trading session if the price of two or more futures contracts with delivery months in the first five listed non-spot contract months, or the the final contract month of a crop year, closes at the price limit.^[3] Price limits can expand only two consecutive times (e.g. from $.60 per bushel to $.90 per bushel, and then from $.90 per bushel to $1.35 per bushel). If the price limit has been raised to either of the higher limits and no futures contract month closes at the limit, in the following trading session the limit will revert back to the previous price limit.^[3] A contract has no price limits whatsoever during its spot month.^[3]

Last Trading Day

Trading of kansas city wheat futures contracts on the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) ends on the business day prior to the fifteenth calendar day of the contract month.^[3]

Deliverable Grades

Deliverable wheat grades for futures contracts on the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) at are: No. 2 Hard Red Winter Wheat (at par), and No. 1 Hard Red Winter Wheat (at a 1.5 cent premium to the contract price), and No. 3 Hard Red Winter Wheat (at a 5 cent discount to the contract price).^[3] As of July 2008, No. 3 Hard Red Winter Wheat is no longer accepted unless the receipt holder agrees to pay for an upgrade to No. 2 Hard Red Winter Wheat.

CBOT Wheat vs. KCBT Wheat

Both wheat futures traded on Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) are used as benchmarks for wheat prices in general. However, generally speaking, the term "wheat futures" refers to wheat futures traded on the CBOT while wheat futures traded on the KCBT are specified to be "KCBT Wheat," "KC Wheat," or "Kansas City Wheat".

See Also

• Wheat Prices
• Wheat Futures
• Spring Wheat Futures
• Mini-Sized Wheat Futures

References

1. ↑ Kansas City Board of Trade Wheat Futures Contract Specifications
2. ↑ Price Quotes for outcry and electronic KCBT wheat
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7}