Set up a Forward Curve Price Series

Security Note: You need the Allow the user to edit price series security right in the Marketing user group security rights group for this activity.

Activity Steps

Open the Pricing Editor.
Select the Forward Curves tab.
To create a forward curve price series category:
1. Right-click in the Forward Curve Price Series Categories field group and select New from the menu.
2. Update the Name of the forward curve price series category if required.
3. Specify the Domains for which the forward price series in the category should be visible. See Domains.
To create a forward curve price series:
1. Select the forward curve price series category.
2. Right-click in the Forward Curves Price Series field group and select New from the menu.
3. Update the Price Series name if required.
4. Select a Source Market that publishes prices if required. Select from the markets defined in the Market/Commodity Editor.
  The market configuration can include prompt calendars and prompts, which together are used to determine the prompt dates of prices in the price series with that source market. Prompt calendars are used to determine the business days, and prompts are used to determine the offset or day of the month or week. Each market can have a single prompt calendar, and can have multiple prompts. For example, the London Metal Exchange (LME) publishes a 3-month prompt and a daily prompt with a 2-day offset. If the actual price is not yet available for the effective start date in the price series, the price at the prompt date in the forward curve is used.
  If the market configuration does not include prompt calendars and prompts, when the actual price is not yet available for the effective start date in the price series, the price at the same date in the forward curve is used.
5. Complete at least one of the following fields to limit the applicability of the forward curve price series.
  - Material Type—Select from the material types defined on the Material panel of the Solution Explorer.
  - Products—Select from the products and brands defined on the Material panel of the Solution Explorer.
  - Analyte—Select from the analytes defined on the Quality panel of the Solution Explorer.
6. Complete the following fields.
  - Decimals—Number of decimal places to which the prices are entered and displayed. Use the number of decimal places in which the prices are published.
  - Currency—Use the currency in which the prices are published. Select from the currencies defined in the Currency/Exchange Editor.
  - Unit—Select from the Mass units defined in the Unit Conversion Editor.
  - Entry Frequency—Frequency at which price updates are available and need to be entered. This frequency determines the rows displayed in the Prices table. Select from Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Half Year and Year. This field is read-only if any prices have been entered for the price series.
  - Forward Frequency—Frequency at which forward curve updates are available and need to be entered. This frequency determines the columns displayed in the Prices table. Select from Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Half Year and Year. This field is read-only if any prices have been entered for the price series.
7. Select the Associated Price Series. Select from the standard price series defined on the Pricing Editor.
8. If the Entry Frequency is Day, Week, Month or Quarter, select the Series Calendars. This field is read-only if any prices have been entered for the forward curve. Select from the calendars defined in the Calendar Editor. If multiple calendars are selected:
  - All calendars are used to determine non-working days.
  - Only the first calendar is used to determine the start of week day or start of month date.
  Example: If an operation is in Australia, but the source market is in London, and the UK has a bank holiday on the Monday when Australia has a normal working day, the calendar can be used to indicate this.
9. Select whether to Use Extrapolation to estimate missing prices from available prices for the number of Extrapolation Days from the Effective Start date.
  Whether to linearly interpolate and extrapolate from available prices in the forward curve to estimate missing prices. At least two prices must be available in the forward curve price series. If checked, MineMarket estimates missing forward curve prices based on available prices each time you enter a price and then move to a different row in the Prices table. If there are not at least two available prices, MineMarket returns an error message for calculations based on the forward curve. If unchecked and required prices are missing, MineMarket returns an error message for calculations based on the forward curve. Default: Unchecked.
  Interpolation example: A calculation requires an average of forward curve prices for working days in July, but one required price has not been entered. MineMarket estimates the missing price based on the previous and next price in the series.
  Extrapolation example: A calculation requires an average of forward curve prices for working days in July, but only prices for the first week of July have been entered. MineMarket estimates the missing prices based on the last two entered prices.
10. If Use Extrapolation is checked, enter the number of Extrapolation Days.
11. Enter a Description if required.
To enter prices for a forward curve price series:
1. Select the forward curve price series.
2. Enter the following search criteria in the Prices field group.
  - Applicable Start Date—Date from which to search for price series for the forward curve. This date range controls the Effective Start of price series in the Prices table; that is, the dates in the first column.
  - Applicable End Date
  - Forward Start Date—Date from which to search for prices in each price series entered for the forward curve. This date controls the starting date going across the rows of the Prices table; that is, the dates in the column headers.
  - Forward End Date
3. Click Search or press F3.
  Estimated prices (interpolated and extrapolated) display with a grey background and can be overridden.
4. Enter the Price for each Effective Start date.
  Note: Press Ctrl+V to paste data copied from another application, such as a spreadsheet. You can also right-click a price and select Copy To Unassigned Dates to copy that price to all displayed effective and forward dates that do not yet have a price.
To update estimated prices, right-click a price series in the Prices table and select Calculate Interpolation/Extrapolation from the menu.
To delete saved estimated prices, right-click a price series in the Prices table and select Delete Interpolation/Extrapolation from the menu.
Click Save.