Benjamin Hoff – Commodity Futures Surfaces and the Cash-and-Carry Glue (S7E17)

In this episode of Flirting with Models, Corey Hoffstein interviews Benjamin Hoff, Global Head of Commodity Strategy at SockGen, about the unique aspects of commodity markets compared to other asset classes like rates and FX. They discuss the importance of cash-and-carry economics, inventory finance, and storage capacity in tethering spot and futures prices, as well as the sparse information cadence that makes technical models relevant. Ben shares his insights on the geometry of the future surface, convexity, skewness, and the application of tools like Levy Area to uncover nonlinear structures in commodity data. The conversation also covers commodity strategies, the role of financialization, and the potential for advanced mathematics and modern computing to shape the future of commodity trading.