| Decision Rules for Strategies | Strategies |
| General | All short futures hedge positions are offset during the second week of October for soybeans and fourth week of October for corn. |
| Hedge I 1 | Following short crop year, hedge first week in February; otherwise hedge during the third week of May. |
| Hedge II | Following short crop year, hedge first week in February; otherwise hedge during the first week of July. |
| Synthetic Put I - III | Following short crop year, hedge in February; otherwise hedge during third week of May and buy $0.20 ($0.25) out-of-money new crop corn (soybean) call which is offset in July Week 1 for synthetic put I, August Week 1 for synthetic put II, and September Week 2 for synthetic put III. |
| Synthetic Put IV | Following a short crop year, hedge in February and buy $0.20 ($0.25) out-of-money new crop corn (soybean) call which is offset in July; otherwise hedge during third week of May and buy $0.20 ($0.25) out-of-money new crop corn (soybean) call which is offset in July. |
| Synthetic Put V-VI | Repeat rules for synthetic put IV but offset call in August for synthetic put V and offset call in September for synthetic put VI. |
| Synthetic Puts VII - IX | Repeat rules for synthetic puts I - III, but eliminate February hedge following short crop year. |
| Mixed Hedge/Put I 2 | Buy $0.20 ($0.25) out-of-money new crop corn (soybean) put for 80% of expected production in third week of May and hedge remaining 20% of expected production in July. Offset put in October week 2 for corn and offset put in October week 2 for soybean. |
| Mixed Hedge/Put II | Following short crop year, hedge in February; otherwise repeat rules for mixed hedge/put. |
| Mixed Hedge/Put III | Following short crop year, hedge in February and buy $0.20 ($0.25) out-of-money new crop corn (soybean) call which is offset in July; otherwise repeat rules for mixed hedge/put I. |
| 1. For Hedge I and II strategies, 1979-1996 was analyzed to correspond to Wisner's previous work. With options strategies, the analysis period was 1985-1996, to avoid artificially generating options premia. | |
| 2. A range of 50 to 80 percent of the 10-year moving average production covered by puts was tested. Highest net returns occurred with puts purchased in May covering 80 percent of indicated production, with the remaining 20 percent hedged in July with November or December futures. Any unhedged production was sold in the harvest cash market. | |