CommodityScope Assessment & Publication Framework

1. Purpose

This document is the CommodityScope Assessment & Publication Framework. It states the platform-level rules that apply across CommodityScope-created assessments, modelled indicators, freight indices, reference series and computed statistics.

CommodityScope is an independent physical commodity, freight and market-intelligence publisher. It maintains its own series definitions, family methodologies, publication rules and historical records.

This Framework does not define a universal midpoint formula, evidence hierarchy, divergence threshold, liquidity algorithm, range algorithm or confidence algorithm. Those rules belong to the methodology that publishes the record.

A published series is always traceable through series identifier, series specification, methodology family, methodology or model version, and the published record for the assessment date.

2. Methodology Structure

Public documentation is three-level: Framework → Methodologies → Series Specifications.

• Level 1 — Core Framework (this document: publication architecture and governance);
• Level 2 — Family Methodology (how that family assesses and publishes its markets);
• Level 3 — Series Specification (the market represented by a named CS series).

Each published series is governed by one methodology and a defined market basis. The published record identifies that methodology and version. A series specification defines the market represented by that series; it is not a separate methodology.

Family membership and publication type are separate dimensions. One family may publish more than one publication class. A series specification states both.

3. Publication Architecture

Published records are versioned, dated and traceable. Corrections preserve the audit history. The site displays published assessments, modelled indicators, indices and reference series, together with their documented history.

Absence of a published value for a date is unpublished. A substitute is not calculated for display.

Market observations used as inputs remain distinct from CommodityScope-published assessments, models and indices. Display of an input does not convert that input into a CommodityScope-created assessment.

4. Publication Classes

CommodityScope Indicative Assessment

A CommodityScope-created analytical estimate of the prevailing market level for a defined physical commodity or freight basis, governed by a family methodology. It is not an executable quotation, firm offer, confirmed transaction or contractual settlement value.

CommodityScope Modelled Indicator

A value calculated through a CommodityScope-defined model over published inputs and stated assumptions. Examples include voyage TCE, production-cost and nutrient-value indicators, product-freight netbacks and Crude Delivered Cost. A modelled output is not a market observation.

CommodityScope Freight Index

An index calculated from a defined basket of published CommodityScope freight assessments, expressed in index points from a published base. It is not a freight quotation, TCE estimate or fixture.

Reference Market Series

An externally administered or public market reference displayed separately from CommodityScope-created assessments. Examples include exchange settlements, public indices, official statistics, selected stocks, duties and other externally maintained series. CommodityScope does not represent an externally administered benchmark as having been created or administered by CommodityScope.

Computed Statistics

Changes, averages, minima, maxima, coverage notes and comparisons calculated from already published observations of a single series or from defined pairs. They describe the published dataset. They are not separate market quotations.

A series specification states the publication class of that series. Family methodology states how that class is produced inside the family.

5. Series Specification

A Series Specification is the public representation of the series market basis. It is not a full methodology.

Where published, a specification defines the market represented by the series, including as applicable: CS identifier, product and quality basis, geography, pricing basis, unit and currency, standard cargo or parcel, loading or delivery window, publication cadence, assessment cutoff, reference conversion, methodology family, publication type, methodology version, listed related-series configuration, and series-specific exclusions.

Where a standalone specification has not been issued, the governing methodology and the published series parameters remain the public definition of that series.

6. Historical Integrity

Published records retain their assessment date and methodology version. A published value is not silently overwritten when inputs, calculation rules or methodology later change.

• No silent reconstruction of historical records;
• no silent assignment of provenance onto already published dates;
• methodology or model version remains the version stored on the published record;
• historical backfill, where performed, is identified as backfill or reconstruction and does not replace the original published record.

Where no value is published for a date, the series records a missing observation. Values are not carried forward or interpolated merely to complete a calendar. A missing assessment does not mean the market was unchanged.

7. No Look-Ahead

A published record for date D must not use information from D+1 or later. Models that read other published records use same-date inputs where the model requires date alignment. Missing same-date inputs are not silently replaced by a later date.

8. Versioning

A change that affects a published numeric result requires a family-local methodology or model version change and an explicit rule. Numeric results include midpoint, range, TCE, delivered cost, freight assessments and index points.

Examples of versioned changes include midpoint logic, range construction, input-selection logic, normalization that affects the published number, and model formulae or assumptions that affect the published number.

Descriptive metadata that does not influence numeric output may be added without a methodology version change.

A range change is a methodology change even if the midpoint is unchanged.

New market coverage does not by itself constitute a methodology change where the existing family methodology is applied without modification.

9. Corrections and Withdrawals

CommodityScope distinguishes:

• source correction — a defect in an input observation;
• publication correction — a defect in processing, unit, conversion, coding or display of an already governed value;
• methodology revision — a change to the rules, effective from a stated date;
• historical reconstruction — an explicitly identified backcast or restatement;
• withdrawn value — a published value withdrawn from the current record.

A correction supersedes the previously published value through the applicable correction mechanism while preserving audit history. The original record is not silently overwritten. A correction is not subsequent market movement. Dependent charts, statistics, models or indices may be recalculated after a correction where those products read the superseded published value.

A data or coding error in a modelled product is recorded as a correction to that product. It is not a new methodology version merely because one number was wrong.

10. External Information

CommodityScope may use public market information, exchange-administered references, freight and logistics observations, market-participant indications and supplementary third-party benchmark references.

External market information may be used as validation, comparison, calibration or, where provided by the applicable family methodology, as an input to the published assessment. The treatment of such inputs is defined by the relevant family methodology.

CommodityScope does not represent its products as the official assessment or methodology of another publisher, exchange, benchmark administrator or data provider.

11. Provenance Principles

Provenance describes the published record. It does not change the published number.

Published assessments and freight values retain how the midpoint was formed, the assessment date and the inputs used. Already published dates are not rewritten with a later description. Modelled products describe the model run; that description does not change the result.

A published record may describe how the midpoint was obtained. That description is not a score of liquidity, confidence or mapping quality.

Public pages describe published values in ordinary market language.

12. Descriptive Notes

Descriptive notes attached after numeric calculation do not change midpoint, range, TCE, delivered cost or methodology version.

Provenance describes what was published. It does not describe an unpublished alternative method.

13. Explainability

For any published value CommodityScope aims to be able to answer: why this midpoint; why this range; what evidence was used; what was derived or proxied; which family and version applied; which published inputs a model used.

CommodityScope does not use black-box generation of published prices.

14. Governance

Ownership

CommodityScope methodologies are owned by the publisher of commodityscope.com.

Revision publication

A material family or model change is issued as a new version with an effective date.

Effective dates

A version applies from its effective date. It does not rewrite earlier published records.

Archive

Previous methodology versions remain part of the methodology archive.

Questions

Methodology questions, corrections and series-definition queries may be sent to desk@commodityscope.com.

15. Important Notice

CommodityScope Assessments, Modelled Indicators, Freight Indices, Reference Market Series and Computed Statistics are provided for informational and market-intelligence purposes. They are not firm bids, firm offers, transaction confirmations, vessel fixtures, investment advice or contractual settlement values unless specifically identified otherwise.

CommodityScope does not warrant that an indicative assessment or modelled value can be executed at the displayed level. These products are not represented as a regulated benchmark. Use is subject to the CommodityScope Terms of Service.