CommodityScope Grain Assessment Methodology

1. Scope

This document formalizes Grain methodology version 1.1 as recorded on applicable published snapshots. It does not retrospectively assign a new effective date to earlier publications. Parent document: CommodityScope Assessment & Publication Framework (/methodology/core).

This methodology currently covers physical grain and feed markets published under this family. Family membership and publication type are separate. The series specification states the publication class of the named series.

Physical grain and feed

Weekly physical assessments for defined product, origin or loading basis, including wheat, barley, corn, soybeans and soybean meal series where published as physical prices under this family.

Outside this family

Nearby grain futures, exchange settlements and other paper quotations are Reference Market Series. They are not inputs to this Grain methodology and are not assessed under this document. Dry freight, export duties, fertilizers, oil products and modelled indicators remain in their own families.

2. What Grain 1.1 Is

Grain 1.1 is a weekly physical market assessment on a defined product and loading basis. Daily same-basis quotations may support that assessment after they are reduced to one weekly median per evidence stream and compared with the weekly reference.

The same weekly-median comparison decides whether a stream is admitted to the Assessment Range. Nearby grain futures remain Reference Market Series and are not assessed under this document.

3. Weekly Reference

The weekly reference is the dated weekly observation used in the calculation for the assessment date. That observation is the starting midpoint. Grain 1.1 does not replace that weekly reference with a daily last print, an exchange nearby, or a related-market blend.

Supplementary daily quotations are considered only inside the family window: the assessment date and the six preceding calendar days. Observations dated after the assessment date are not used.

4. Evidence-Stream Weekly Medians

Daily sampling density must not multiply an evidence-stream contribution. For each evidence stream, Grain 1.1 collapses the quotations in the window to one weekly median. That median is one midpoint candidate, not one candidate per printed day.

The weight of an admitted evidence-stream weekly median is the highest applicable category weight of that stream in the window. The weekly report is a midpoint input with weight 1.00.

Midpoint category weights

Supplementary Grain evidence currently recorded as daily FOB quotations is classified as a market quotation. The table is the family rule applied to whatever evidence types are present for the series. Related-market and previous-assessment values do not enter the Grain 1.1 midpoint.

5. Divergence Policy

Each evidence-stream weekly median is compared with the weekly report. The gap is measured against the report value. The buckets are Grain-owned and are not a platform-wide rule.

Evidence beyond 10% is not deleted. It remains in the observation record. It does not pull the published midpoint or the published range.

A 5% gap is still admitted to the midpoint and the range. A gap above 10% is evidence-only.

6. Assessment Midpoint

If no evidence-stream weekly median is within 5% of the weekly report, the published Assessment Midpoint is the weekly report.

If one or more evidence-stream weekly medians are within 5%, the midpoint is the weighted mean of the weekly report and those admitted evidence-stream weekly medians, using the category weights in Section 4. That blended midpoint is then snapped to the Grain tick.

Range construction, previous assessments, exchange nearby futures and observations outside the admission threshold do not replace the midpoint rule above.

Where an evidence-stream weekly median enters the midpoint, the published midpoint is supported by that admitted weekly evidence. Where the weekly report is the sole midpoint input, the published midpoint is that weekly reference.

7. Assessment Range

Where the series is a physical Indicative Assessment, Grain 1.1 publishes an Assessment Range around the midpoint. The range is CommodityScope’s estimate of uncertainty around that assessed level.

The range is not the week’s high and low, a quoted bid/offer spread, or an executable trading range. It is CommodityScope’s uncertainty interval around the Assessment Midpoint.

An evidence stream is admitted to the Assessment Range if its weekly median is within 10% of the weekly report. After that admission, Grain 1.1 currently supplies the in-window daily observations of that stream to range construction, together with the weekly report and the previous published assessment. Daily sampling density therefore cannot multiply a stream’s midpoint contribution, but it can still contribute more than one observation to the range of an admitted stream.

Range construction may also use historical volatility of the CommodityScope midpoint series, quantile dispersion of admitted observations, the series liquidity profile, confidence scaling and tick snapping.

Evidence streams beyond 10% of the weekly report do not enter the range. Grain 1.1 currently lists no related series as range inputs.

A change to published low or high is a methodology change even if the midpoint is unchanged. Supplying evidence-stream weekly medians instead of the in-window daily observations of an admitted stream would also be a methodology change.

8. Liquidity Profile, Tick and Cadence

Grain 1.1 physical series currently use a thin liquidity profile for range floors and scaling. The profile is family-owned. It is not a global market-quality score.

Tick size for Grain 1.1 physical series is 0.50 in the published unit, typically USD/mt. Published midpoint (when blended) and range bounds are snapped to that tick. An unblended weekly-report midpoint is published as the report value.

Publication cadence is weekly. Cargo size, loading window and cutoff, where issued, are series-specification facts. They are not implied from this family methodology.

The assessment date is the market date reflected by the snapshot. It is distinct from the time at which the value becomes available in CommodityScope systems.

9. Related Markets

Related series belong to this family methodology and are listed. Grain 1.1 does not currently list related-forward or related-physical series as midpoint or range inputs.

Nearby grain futures may be reviewed as market context. They do not enter the Grain 1.1 midpoint or Assessment Range. They are published as Reference Market Series under the Reference Series Publication Methodology (/methodology/reference).

10. Publication Governance

A change to this Grain methodology does not change assessments published under other family methodologies.

Weekly medians, the weekly reference and the 5% / 10% divergence thresholds are Grain rules. They are not applied to oil products, fertilizers, freight, tanker, TCE or reference series.

11. Important Notice

Grain values published under this methodology are CommodityScope Indicative Assessments or the publication class stated on the series specification. They are analytical estimates for market-intelligence purposes, not bids, offers, executable quotations or contractual settlement values, and they are not represented as a regulated benchmark.

Use is subject to the CommodityScope Assessment & Publication Framework and the CommodityScope Terms of Service.