Weather derivatives

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A bonanza, if the idea of taking the disappointment ice cream brings on a cold day and hedging it in the swaps market makes sense to you — it certainly made sense to those geniuses at Enron but, eheu, a couple of weeks after they had the idea their company collapsed, taking the nascent weather derivatives market with it.

These days you can buy temperature-linked futures on CME but, for all the breathy Forbes guest contributor pieces about this exciting market that might seek to persuade you otherwise, it remains a bit niche.

Meantime, that perennial favourite among sweet-toothed heavy metal fans, Häagen-Dazs, goes from strength to strength.

See also

• swaps