...and, indeed, many other financial derivative products. They have a terrible reputation but smoothing the curve between boom and bust in commodities is a very useful service.
And back when investing in such derivatives was limited to, e.g. buyers of such commodities, it worked fine.
Now the average commodity "investor" just sees a differently-labeled slot machine and cares not at all about the underlying commodity, and never intends to accept delivery of same. For speculators, increasing (not decreasing) the boom-bust cycle is beneficial.
For farmers a boom bust cycle is fine as long as they cam match the product being sold. If they sell a futures when planting they get out of the market and stop carring about the eventual price.
...and, indeed, many other financial derivative products. They have a terrible reputation but smoothing the curve between boom and bust in commodities is a very useful service.