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Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities (Weat) (Teucrium Wheat Fund [Member])
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2014
Teucrium Wheat Fund [Member]
  
Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities

Note 4 - Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities

 

In the normal course of business, the Fund utilizes derivative contracts in connection with its proprietary trading activities.  Investments in derivative contracts are subject to additional risks that can result in a loss of all or part of an investment.  The Fund's derivative activities and exposure to derivative contracts are classified by the following primary underlying risks: interest rate, credit, commodity price, and equity price risks.  In addition to its primary underlying risks, the Fund is also subject to additional counterparty risk due to inability of  its counterparties to meet the terms of their contracts.  For the three months ended March 31, 2014 and 2013, the Fund invested only in commodity futures contracts. Cleared Wheat Swaps have standardized terms similar to, and are priced by reference to, the corresponding Benchmark Component Futures Contract. Additionally, Other Wheat Interests that do not have standardized terms and are not exchange-traded, referred to as "over-the-counter" Wheat Interests, can generally be structured as the parties to the Wheat Interest contract desire.  Therefore, the Fund might enter into multiple Cleared Swaps and/or over-the-counter Interests intended to exactly replicate the performance of the Benchmark Component Futures Contracts for the Fund, or a single over-the-counter Interest designed to replicate the performance of the Benchmark as a whole.  Assuming that there is no default by a counterparty to an over-the-counter Interest, the performance of the Interest will not necessarily correlate exactly with the performance of the Benchmark or the applicable Benchmark Component Futures Contract.

 

Futures Contracts

 

The Fund is subject to commodity price risk in the normal course of pursuing its investment objectives. A futures contract represents a commitment for the future purchase or sale of an asset at a specified price on a specified date.

 

The purchase and sale of futures contracts requires margin deposits with a Futures Commission Merchant ("FCM").  Subsequent payments (variation margin) are made or received by the Fund each day, depending on the daily fluctuations in the value of the contract, and are recorded as unrealized gains or losses by the Fund.  Futures contracts may reduce the Fund's exposure to counterparty risk since futures contracts are exchange-traded; and the exchange's clearinghouse, as the counterparty to all exchange-traded futures, guarantees the futures against default.

 

The Commodity Exchange Act requires an FCM to segregate all customer transactions and assets from the FCM's proprietary activities.  A customer's cash and other equity deposited with an FCM are considered commingled with all other customer funds subject to the FCM's segregation requirements.  In the event of an FCM's insolvency, recovery may be limited to the Fund's pro rata share of segregated customer funds available.  It is possible that the recovery amount could be less than the total of cash and other equity deposited.  

 

The following table discloses information about offsetting assets and liabilities presented in the statements of assets and liabilities to enable users of these financial statements to evaluate the effect or potential effect of netting arrangements for recognized assets and liabilities. These recognized assets and liabilities are presented as defined in the Financial Accounting Standards Board's ("FASB") Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2011-11 "Balance Sheet (Topic 210): Disclosures about Offsetting Assets and Liabilities" and subsequently clarified in FASB ASU 2013-01 "Balance Sheet (Topic 210): Clarifying the Scope of Disclosures about Offsetting Assets and Liabilities."

 

The following table also identifies the fair value amounts of derivative instruments included in the statements of assets and liabilities as derivative contracts, categorized by primary underlying risk as of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013.

 

Offsetting of Financial Assets and Derivative Assets as of March 31, 2014

 

    (i)   (ii)   (iii) = (i) - (ii)   (iv)   (v) = (iii) - (iv)
                         
                Gross Amount Not Offset in the    
                Statement of Assets and Liabilities    
        Gross Amount   Net Amount            
        Offset in the   Presented in the            
    Gross Amount   Statement of   Statement of            
    of Recognized   Assets and   Assets and   Financial   Cash Collateral    
Description   Assets   Liabilities   Liabilities   Instruments   Received   Net Amount
Commodity price                                                
   Wheat futures contracts   $ 788,013     $ -     $ 788,013     $ -     $ -     $ 788,013  

 

Offsetting of Financial Liabilities and Derivative Liabilities as of December 31, 2013

 

    (i)   (ii)   (iii) = (i) - (ii)   (iv)   (v) = (iii) - (iv)
                         
                Gross Amount Not Offset in the    
                Statement of Assets and Liabilities    
        Gross Amount   Net Amount            
        Offset in the   Presented in the            
    Gross Amount   Statement of   Statement of            
    of Recognized   Assets and   Assets and   Financial   Cash Collateral    
Description   Liabilities   Liabilities   Liabilities   Instruments   Pledged   Net Amount
Commodity price                                                
   Wheat futures contracts   $ 698,675     $ -     $ 698,675     $ -     $ 698,675     $ -  

 

The following tables identify the net gain and loss amounts included in the statements of operations as realized and unrealized gains and losses on trading of commodity futures contracts categorized by primary underlying risk:

 

Three months ended March 31, 2014

 

    Realized Gain on   Net Change in Unrealized Gain
Primary Underlying Risk   Derivative Instruments   on Derivative Instruments
Commodity price                
Commodity futures contracts   $ 230,450     $ 1,486,688  

 

Three months ended March 31, 2013

 

    Realized Loss on   Net Change in Unrealized Loss
Primary Underlying Risk   Derivative Instruments   on Derivative Instruments
Commodity price                
Commodity futures contracts   $ (385,538 )   $ (438,975 )

 

Volume of Derivative Activities

 

The notional amounts and number of contracts categorized by primary underlying risk, commodity price risk, are included in the schedule of investments as of March 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013.