This year, the world coffee market saw more volatility than in years past due to increased speculation by  a new wave of traders.

Commodity speculation (including coffee) in the United States changed fundamentally . . due to a rather obscure piece of legislation written by Republican Senator Phil Gramm that substantially relaxed, and in many cases eliminated completey, federal regulation of futures trading in American commodity markets.

Couple this with last year’s purchase of the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT which housed the arabica coffee trading system in addition to cotton, sugar and other commodities) by the Intercontinental Commodities Exchange (ICE), a British electronic energy marketplace.

The sale of NYBOT to the ICE made it even easier for non-commercial investors to get in - in a big way - on the commodities futures action