weather derivatives

We’ve been waiting to see reported figures for the 2008 weather contract volumes traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Unusually, the place we’ve found them is in an article on Medill Reports, a publication from Chicago Northwestern University. The numbers reported don’t look good either. We’d expected to see the trade in weather derivatives, […]

Further evidence of the risks to cash flow faced by small retailers and the need to protect themselves against the vagaries of the weather emerged today in the form of a report from the British Retail Consortium on February sales. They’re blaming the snowfall in the UK in early February for a drop in retail […]

The weather futures trading market is looking incredibly healthy today after the news that Tradition has placed the largest ever volume for a specific weather futures contract at the CME. The deal entailed a Dutch auction style placement to protect their client from weather risks in the London, UK area. The extra capacity this massive […]

Earlier this month I wrote about Star Gas Partners and their 10Q report which left you with the impression that they had failed to protect themselves against the vagaries of the weather even though they run what seems a decent weather risk management program. The 10Q perhaps highlighted that just having weather risk insurance and […]

Another winter storm is beginning to impact Europe today. France’s west coast has been subjected to winds of 100kph and Paris is forecast to face winds of up to 120kph through the night (75mph). It’s not looking to be quite as severe as the storm of two weekends ago but the severity of the weather […]

Reading the 10Q report from Star Gas Partners LP today leaves one with the impression that there is something wrong with their weather risk management cover. They mention the effects of weather on their bottom line both through adverse effects and changes in supply and demand so you’d assume they have a robust risk management […]

CME Group has announced today that it is expanding its suite of weather products to include the Australian cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It’s the first time they’ve supported trading of weather products in Australia. The contracts will go on sale on the 23rd February and include temperature based products of heating and cooling […]

The southeast of Britain has seen the heaviest falls of snow for 18 years overnight with much more forecast to come over the course of the day. Public transport is non-existent, even in the capital city London, and millions of workers have not made it into their offices and shops today. The Federation of Small […]

2008 was a year of ups and downs for the insurance linked security and catastrophe bond markets, while the weather risk management market did not fare so badly (although it has been quiet on the news front). At the start of 2009, we thought we’d ask some of our friends within these markets to contribute […]

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Ltd. has launched weather insurance in the United States and is targeting itself with 1 billion yen (US$11.2m) in sales within the next three years. The first Japanese based insurer to launch weather insurance in the U.S. market, the product was developed by subsidiaries Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance USA Inc. and Mitsui […]