Storage hedging. Farmers or merchants who own a commodity can protect themselves from declines in the commodity’s price by short hedging. This involves selling futures contracts as the commodity is harvested or acquired, holding the resulting short futures position during the storage period, and buying it out when the cash commodity is sold. Losses (gains) in the value of the cash commodity due to unexpected price changes will be largely offset by gains (losses) in the value of the futures position leaving the owner of the commodity with approximately the expected return from storage.