A sharp provisional rise in the white-maize front became the clearest late-week signal. The market remains well supplied as grain enters storage, while realised exports and open El Niño risk lend support; absent new export demand still caps the upside.
Read the note →Applied Derivatives is one of the longest-standing independent members of the JSE — a firm built around the desks of people who have traded SAFEX through every drought, every record crop and every offshore parity blow-out since 2002.
The experience behind the desk runs longer than the firm. Evan Feldman, who leads the team, has traded SAFEX since 1996 and was part of a member firm that was a founding member of the exchange's commodities division, established in 1995. Across the desk, the team carries more than a hundred years of combined experience on this market — three decades of continuous presence through every structural change SAFEX has been through, which is why the reads we give clients are grounded in cycles we traded rather than cycles we read about.
Behind every position we help structure is a data and analytics platform purpose-built for South African grains — hub-level yield forecasts, supply and demand projections through the marketing year, real-time basis and import/export parity, regime detection on price action. Analytical infrastructure built and operated in-house, for the benefit of our clients.
It is the same instinct that made us the first South African broker to bring the Trading Technologies platform to SAFEX. Clients who open an account with us don't just get a phone number. They get an edge.
White maize, yellow maize, wheat, sunflower and soya — futures and options on SAFEX. The grains complex is the heart of what we do, and where our analytics infrastructure goes to work. See the full SAFEX contract specifications and the trading calendar.
Spot, forwards, and structured cover on the rand/dollar (USD/ZAR) and major crosses. For producers, end-users, and trading desks managing currency exposure against grain or equity positions. See the currency contract specifications.
Single-stock futures, index futures and options, financed equity exposure for clients running broader portfolios across the JSE. See the equity derivatives specifications.
Twenty-four years on the desk behind every fill — paired with the analytics infrastructure to back the call.
Position entry, exit, and financing across SAFEX, FX, and JSE equity derivatives. Self-execute online through the Trading Technologies (TT) platform or Swordfish Online — included with every account — or call the desk when you want a human in the loop.
Phased pricing, options structures, basis-aware execution — designed around your specific delivery point, transport, and storage. Not a template; built for your farm.
Mills, feed lots, traders. Forward cost certainty without locking in the wrong level — driven by our own crop and parity analytics, not consensus.
Inter-month, inter-product, SAFEX-CBOT, regime-aware. For desks running discretionary grain or macro books.
We have built a comprehensive grain analytics platform — combining weather data, machine-learning yield models, supply/demand simulation, parity calculation, and trading-regime detection into a single live picture of the grain complex. It runs continuously. It updates daily. It alerts when conditions change in ways our models think matter.
Delayed prices, daily P/L, weekly reports, and on-demand access to your running total — delivered to the app you already use. No portal to log into, no spreadsheet to chase.
SAFEX prices across the curve
Mark-to-market
Calendar, inter-product, and inter-exchange spreads
Physical premiums by location and grade
End-of-day cash report with MTM P/L
Clearing-bank official daily statements
Weekly SAGIS deliveries and stocks
CEC area, yield, and crop estimates
Anomaly price alerts when our models flag a material move
Calendar events — USDA, FOMC, JSE notices
Market holiday notices
Real-time crop stress and quality signals
Type one command in WhatsApp and get your live running mark-to-market total since inception — pulled directly from your clearing bank's official record through our database. An audit-grade snapshot of your trading history, always in your pocket.
When to sell, when to lock, when to wait — informed by yield trajectory and basis evolution at your delivery point.
Forward cost outlook driven by crop conditions and parity.
Regime calls, spread setups, ENSO/IOD-aware crop scenarios. Real signal in a market where signal is rare.
SAFEX — the commodity-derivatives market of the JSE — can only be accessed through a JSE-member broker. Applied Derivatives is an independent JSE member: you open a trading account with us, complete KYC, and trade white maize, yellow maize, wheat, sunflower, and soya futures and options either online through the Trading Technologies (TT) platform, Swordfish Online or directly with our dealing desk. The same account also gives you access to FX pairs (rand/dollar and major crosses) and JSE equity derivatives — single-stock futures, index futures and options.
Yes. Applied Derivatives serves both South African and international clients seeking exposure to South African grain, currency, and equity-derivative markets. We are your access point to SAFEX and the JSE — handling onboarding, execution, financing, and settlement for clients based anywhere in the world, subject to standard KYC and regulatory requirements.
We build hedging programmes for grain producers, mills, and feed manufacturers using SAFEX futures and options — phased pricing, options structures, and basis-aware execution designed around your specific delivery point, transport, and storage. The strategy is informed by our own crop, yield, and import/export-parity analytics rather than market consensus.
Yes. Applied Derivatives is a fully regulated member of the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, and has operated as an independent brokerage since 2002.
Commodities on SAFEX (white maize, yellow maize, wheat, sunflower, soya — futures and options); currency derivatives (rand/dollar and major crosses); and JSE equity derivatives (single-stock futures, index futures and options). Execution, financing, and structured hedging are available across all three.
Contact us at info@derivative.co.za or +27 21 439 3965. Account opening is a regulated process: we guide you through KYC, set up your SAFEX trading account, and activate your trading platform and analytics service. Once approved, you can self-execute online or trade through our desk.
We publish the daily settlement level for all five grain contracts — white maize, yellow maize, wheat, sunflower and soya — in rand per tonne, with the move against the previous session, on our SAFEX settlement prices page. It updates after each close, alongside the board at the top of this page.
Local prices normally trade in the band between export parity at the bottom and import parity at the top — the two levels at which it becomes worth exporting or importing instead of trading locally. Inside that band, the drivers are the size and condition of the crop, the pace of producer deliveries and exports reported by SAGIS, the CEC's revised production estimates, the rand, and world grain prices. Our weekly market notes track exactly these.
Selling futures fixes a price: it removes the downside and gives up the upside, and it requires cash to meet variation margin when the market rallies. Buying options costs a premium up front but sets a floor while leaving the upside open, and the premium rises with expected volatility. Most producer and end-user programmes we run use both, phased across the season. The glossary defines the mechanics; the right mix depends on your crop, storage, and cash position.
Account opening is a regulated process. We will guide you through KYC, fund your SAFEX trading account, and switch you on for the full analytics service.
Open a SAFEX Account