A stack-and-roll strategy appeared to offer a means of avoiding such carrying
costs because short-dated futures markets for oil products historically have
tended to exhibit backwardation. In markets that exhibit persistent backwardation,
a strategy of rolling over a stack of expiring contracts every month can
generate profits. Thus, MGRM’s management apparently thought that a stackand-roll
hedging strategy offered a cost-effective means of locking in a spread
between current spot prices and the long-term price guarantees it had sold to
its customers. As noted earlier, however, this strategy was not without risks.
These risks are examined in more detail below.