Livestock Futures (The Meats)
The complex known as "the meats" consists of feeder cattle, live cattle and lean hogs. Newer commodity traders are sometimes disappointed to learn the infamous pork belly futures contracts have been delisted from the exchange. Nevertheless, as an experienced futures broker I’m confident the trading community is better off without a futures contract written with pork bellies as the underlying asset. Prior to their delisting from exchange offered products, pork belly futures were thinly traded, involved wide bid/ask spreads, excessive volatility, and left countless traders maimed.
Each of the livestock futures are quoted in cents per pound and there are one hundred points to each cent. With the exception of feeder cattle which have a point value of $5, the meats have a point value of $4. Therefore, a penny move (100 points) would be equivalent to $400 in profit or loss in live cattle and lean hogs. An equivalent move in feeder cattle would yield a profit or loss of $500.
The meat futures contracts are commonly quoted with decimals which causes confusion. Don't assume because there is a decimal in the quote that it is meant to depict dollars and cents. The digits beyond the decimal point are referring to the fraction of a penny in which the price is trading. For example, if feeder cattle futures are trading at 210.90 this is equivalent to $2.10 and 9/10ths of a cent.
Let's look at an example on how profit and loss would be calculated when trading live cattle futures. A trader long live cattle from 199.30 gets filled on a limit order working to sell at 202.40. This trade was profitable by 3.1 cents or $1,240 and can be calculated subtracting the entry price from the sales price and multiplying the difference by the multiplier. In the case of live cattle it is $4 a point or $400 per penny.
202.40 - 199.30 = 3.10
3.10 x $4 = $1,240 (before commissions and fees)