what is an inverted futures market 
an inverted futures market refers to a market where contracts that are nearing maturity have a higher market price than far maturity contracts in a normal market futures prices are higher for contracts that are further from maturity an inverted market may be caused by disruptions in the supply of an underlying commodity the bottom linelook alike contracts are derivatives of an exchange traded futures contract unlike the underlying futures look alikes are traded over the counter and have no risk of actual delivery however these derivatives have been criticized as being speculative vehicles that do not contribute to price discovery 