I must give my response to "THE REAL SPIEL Season 1, Episode 6" transcript link given by USCF's Ryan and Kirk that I just read.
It may have been crafted to demystify. However, as someone who has regularly and successfully dealt in the world of commodities for over 30 years, I don't think I could have found a more verbose or confusing mini-educational session dealing with the subject of commodities. With this in mind, I have to laugh at the title of their talk: "Demystifying Commodities Futures: Contango and Backwardation"
This is what happens when this pair tries too hard to encapsulate a subject better presented to a roomful of experienced brokers/traders who at least know something of what they are talking about than to wrongly assume that an uninitiated audience is going to be able to follow along.
Their head-scratching presentation gets so mired in the weeds of giving muddy and digressive explanations of albeit important side issues inherent in commodities trading that by the end of the talk almost everyone is more confused than ever. And the vegetable oil (soybean or palm?) reference was about the poorest commodity example to choose for educational purposes.
I'm now going to make it simple with he best advice I can offer. I know only too well what they were TRYING to say, but a usable education on Contango, Backwardation and other key subjects related to what USCF is doing on a daily basis is better acquired from one's own internet research.
There, if one is interested enough, one can find clear and ample information to be grasped at your own pace by those who actually succeeded in demystifying the subject matter of commodities. Many books are also available on the subject both from an economic and educational/trading perspective.
