FUN FACT 🧅🧅🧅
ONIONS ARE THE ONLY VEGETABLE IN AMERICA YOU ARE LEGALLY BANNED FROM TRADING FUTURES ON
THE REASON IS ONE OF THE CRAZIEST MARKET MANIPULATIONS IN HISTORY.
IN 1955 2 CHICAGO TRADERS BOUGHT 30 MILLION POUNDS OF ACTUAL ONIONS
THAT WAS 98% OF ALL THE ONIONS IN IN THE AREA
THEN THEY LOADED UP ON ONION
FUTURES TOO
THEY DIDN'T JUST WANT TODAY'S ONIONS. THEY WANTED TOMORROW'S.
THEY OWNED THE ENTIRE MARKET.
THEN CAME THE BETRAYAL.
THEY SOLD SOME AT THE TOP THEN THEY SECRETLY FLIPPED & SHORTED ONION FUTURES, AND DUMPED ALL OF ONIONS ONTO THE MARKET ALL AT ONCE.
A 50 LB BAG WENT FROM $2.75 TO 10 CENTS
FOR CONTEXT THE EMPTY BAG THAT THE ONIONS CAME IN COSTED 20 CENTS
THE ONIONS WERE LITERALLY WORTH NEGATIVE
THEY MADE MILLIONS. FARMERS WERE LEFT DUMPING ROTTING ONIONS BY THE TRUCKLOAD
SO THE FARMERS WENT TO WASHINGTON AND A YOUNG MICHIGAN CONGRESSMAN TOOK UP THEIR FIGHT.
HIS NAME? GERALD FORD. THE FUTURE PRESIDENT.
IN 1958, ONION FUTURES WERE BANNED. NEARLY 70 YEARS LATER, THEY STILL ARE.
BUT HERE'S THE TWIST
ONION PRICES HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE VOLATILE SINCE THE BAN
BECAUSE FARMERS CAN NO LONGER HEDGE
CONGRESS TRIED TO PROTECT FARMERS AND ENDED UP HURTING THEM
HAPPENING NOW in downtown Chicago, outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the historic center of onion futures trading