, Columnist
A Speed Race for Soybeans
Also fake tenders and index exclusion.
Faster traders trade faster than slow traders.
Every month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture puts out a report that says how many soybeans there are. If there are more soybeans than people thought, soybeans will be worth less than people thought, and vice versa, because of supply and demand. If everyone thought that there were, like, 600 soybeans, and the USDA reports that there are in fact 500 soybeans, then the price of a soybean will rise: If it was $100 a minute before the report, it might be $110 a minute after. (I am simplifying here—these are not the actual prices or quantities of soybeans, and the report is more complicated than this—but who cares.)