Why Haven't Uranium Futures Contracts Succeeded? A Case Study

Abstract

Why have some seemingly promising futures contracts not succeeded in the recent past? In this paper, we will examine one such example, the uranium futures market. In two companion working papers, we will also analyze two other futures market failures: namely, in the pulp market and in the weather derivatives market.The structure of this brief paper is as follows. First we provide some background on the uranium futures contract as well as a description of this contract, and then we note how the uranium market does not sufficiently match up against the criteria for the successful launch of a futures contract.