ABSTRACT
Originally the conditions for the establishment of futures markets were treated as a list of commodity prerequisites based on generalizations from past experience, such as price variability, ability to specify a standard grade, storability, deliverability, etc. (e.g. Houthakker, 1959; see the discussion in Section 1 of Chapter 7 of this volume). Gray (1966) distinguished between the feasibility of a futures market and its success, and referred to contractual characteristics which may hinder success, such as where delivery provisions favour one side of the market.
