The relatively light build for the week ending July 9 marked the fifth week in a row of inventory building at a below-average pace. Read more»

Propane production needs to stabilize or grow to change the pricing environment so propane prices fall again, says Mark Rachal of Cost Management Solutions. Read more»

In a backwardated pricing environment, you may want to consider using financial swaps to lock the price of supply in future months, says Mark Rachal of CMS. Read more»

For future reference, use this list of key points about financial swaps and how they can be used with pre-buys and spot buying to manage price risks. Read more»

Mark Rachal of Cost Management Solutions explains how using financial swaps differs from doing a pre-buy to manage supply costs. Read more»

A "stop loss" is a threshold that will trigger a position to close, thus limiting the loss on a position that is not performing as expected. Read more»

Speculation requires vigilance in monitoring the position. If it isn’t performing as expected, then the prudent step might be to close the position. Read more»

Hedging is the easiest way to use financial swaps, but we can also use swaps to capture an opportunity that may be present in the market, says Mark Rachal of Cost Management Solutions. Read more»

Financial swaps are risk management tools. When used properly, they are true hedges that provide predictable results for supply purchases. Read more»

Mark Rachal explains the process of delivering physical supply to the customer and settling financial swaps to show how the two work together. Read more»