Approximation for convenience yield in industrial and precious metals futures pricing

In this thesis, it is aimed to test the importance of convenience yield in futures contracts of commodities. The trading strategies that are applied in pricing depend on the volatility of underlying shares? spot price, volatility of futures contract price and the time left to maturity. The quarterly data between 2000 and 2012 is used to presume futures price of precious metals and industrial metals by convenience yield approach. Whether there has been a change at the commodities price volatilities due to the global crisis between these years, has tested by 20 days simple variance series and Garch (1,1) variance series.It has been observed that there is no significant difference in terms of the estimation results of variance models. In addition to this, it has been monitored that convenience yield approach is successful in defining the prices of industrial metals? prices economically and statistically. On the other hand, it is not successful enough in defining the prices of precious metals? prices economically and statistically.Keywords: Convenience yield, volatility models, futures contract