Soft commodity cotton, and orange juice. Soft commodities have been known to adopt a backwardation trend until the late 1990s when futures were actively traded. Speculation and investment requirements later shaped the common contango trend. Soft commodity Soft commodities, or softs, are commodities such as coffee, cocoa, sugar, corn, wheat, soybean, fruit and livestock. The term generally refers to commodities that are grown, rather than mined; the latter (such as oil, copper and gold) are known as hard commodities. Soft commodities play a major part in the futures market. They are used by farmers wishing to lock-in the future prices of their
Commodity markets. The wide availability of commodities typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (such as brand name) other than price. The word "commodity" came into use in English in the 15th century, from the French "commodité", "amenity, convenience". Going further back, the French word derives from the Latin "commoditas", meaning "suitability, convenience, advantage". The Latin word "commodus" (from which English gets other words including "commodious" and "accommodate") meant variously "appropriate", "proper measure, time, or condition", and "advantage, benefit". In economics, the term "commodity" is used specifically for economic goods or services that have full or