Even though the Bremen Cotton Exchange has “Börse” in its name, futures trading in the commodity has not taken place at the institution since 1971. Trading transactions are conducted in different ways: either physically in producing countries themselves or via international commodity futures trading. Alongside quality assessment, price determination is an essential component of the business transaction. To this end, cotton producers and cotton traders from all over the world are guided by various daily cotton price quotations.
The term New York Cotton Futures refers to goods available in the future. A daily value is quoted for specific trading months spread over several harvest seasons. The futures contracts enable cotton traders and their customers to buy cotton today at a certain price, which will not be delivered until later months. The goal here is primarily a hedging transaction rather than the actual purchase of the commodity. It should be noted that, as with all forward transactions, price developments are strongly influenced by investment transactions.
The Cotlook A Index is one of the world’s most important indices. It refers to both currently available and future deliverable commodities in the Far East, including loading and shipping costs (CFR). It is formed from the average of the five lowest quotations of a selection (currently eighteen) of the most important internationally traded upland cotton grades for a defined base quality.
The CIF Bremen is a price index, issued by the Price Commission of the Bremen Cotton Exchange, which tracks the daily value of cotton including freight, insurance and loading costs (CIF) for Bremen and the European northern continent. It is formed from the average of the five most favorable quotations from various countries of origin for a firmly defined average quality.
In addition, there are regional price indices which often only provide information on cotton prices in a specific country, for example the China Cotton Index for China or spot prices for sales in India, Pakistan or the USA. Nevertheless, the price development of these indices can also have an influence on world market prices.
The Bremen Cotton Exchange offers a compilation of current price developments for cotton on its website as a daily service.