Contango 101: What It Means for Your Energy Investments

Sometimes it seems like investors have a language all their own. If you ever tune in to the talking heads on some of the major business stations, they'll use some big words that likely will have you scratching your head. One such word is contango, which has absolutely nothing to do with dancing.

Contango is a term used when a trader is talking about a forward or futures contract. Normally, a forward or futures curve will have an upward slope to it meaning that traders are willing to pay more for the underlying commodity or contract in the future. The market is said to be in contango when traders are willing to pay more today than they are in the future. The following graph helps to display this more visually:

Source: Suicup

This term can come into play when investing in the energy markets. When natural gas or oil is in contango, a producer might want to lock in the price of oil and gas to get a better short-term price to ensure its profits. That's because if a market is in contango it means that the company can earn more money by selling short-term contracts as opposed to a longer-term contract. Let's take a look at a couple of examples of how this can play out with your investments.  (more)
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