Cotton Price: Live Price Chart

Cotton is another popular soft commodity to trade. It is harvested as a soft fibre from the seeds of the plant known as genus Gossypium. This type of plant is most commonly found in India, Africa, Australia and Mexico. Some 25 million tonnes of cotton are produced annually today.

Cotton has become an invaluable commodity in the textile and clothing industry. Cotton fibres have been spun into garments for thousands of years. The Industrial Revolution then turbo-charged the role of cotton and the clothing industry, with woven and knitted cotton becoming a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide. It’s not just clothing garments that cotton seeds have transformed. Cotton seed is often used to cost-effectively feed livestock and the oil from cotton seed is also an alternative form of cooking oil and is even found in cosmetics like soaps and cleansers.

The fibres left behind in cotton seed production, known as linters, are also repurposed for use in everything from bank notes to bandages. There are four main types of cotton produced – upland cotton, levant cotton, extra-long staple cotton and tree cotton. Upland cotton accounts for 90% of global production. India and China compete as the world’s leading cotton producers, with the latter said to have 100,000 active cotton farmers today.

The price of cotton hit all-time highs of $227 per pound in March 2011. This summer, the price fell from almost $160 per pound to $101 per pound, as the global economy displays signs of a retraction. Poor economic conditions are a negative for cotton prices, with consumers more likely to seek cheaper fabrics like polyester garments instead of cotton.

There’s no doubt that cotton prices are also heavily influenced by global oil prices. Cotton requires substantial oil for production, with high crude oil prices driving costs up for producers. As with many other soft commodities, cotton is traded in US dollars per pound. A strong US dollar can help to underpin the cotton price, relative to other major fiat currencies.

As with many other soft commodities, the price of cotton can be highly volatile at times. With unpredictable climatic and trading conditions, it may be easier to scalp the short-term price volatility than invest in the price of cotton for the long term. Some cotton traders may have access to long-term weather patterns and forecasts to anticipate likely yields for the coming year, which could be an option for medium-term cotton investors.

Cotton futures and options trading can also be carried out via the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Futures contracts allow you to profit from future price rises or falls without having to own the underlying asset. Options contracts are another derivative instrument, giving you the option to buy or sell the price of cotton if it hits a certain price within a set timeframe.