Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Traders Do Something About Weather

April 23, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

Hair dryer

Financial instruments are derivatives of underlying reality. A share of stock in Apple Inc. represents fractional ownership of Apple’s offices and intellectual property and the cash flows from its business. An Apple option represents a bet on the future price of that Apple stock. An S&P 500 index fund represents a collection of claims on 500 companies’ stocks. A Treasury bond represents a claim on the US government’s future ability to collect taxes. A Treasury futures contract represents a claim on the future delivery of a Treasury bond. Oil futures represent the future value of crude oil drilled ...

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