George was a class act in a lot of ways. Once, when his little boy seemed to be in trouble in a swimming pool, I went in after him, while carrying a very expensive camera around my neck. The boy turned out not to be in trouble after all, but the camera was in bad shape from being in the water. Some time later, when I went by the camera repair shop to pick it up, I discovered a huge repair bill. George was a commodity speculator, an occupation that is much misunderstood.
Some people think that speculation is like gambling, when in fact it is the very opposite.
Gambling is based on creating a risk where none would exist otherwise. Speculation is based on trying to reduce an inherent risk and shifting it to those most willing and able to bear it. A commodity speculator may guarantee a future price for so many tons of soybeans, for example, so that the farmer can concentrate on growing the crop, without a lot of heavy worries about what the price will be in the marketplace at harvest time. That means the speculator carries the risk, making good money when his price predictions are right and losing big when he is wrong. The speculator's job is not to understand commodities but to understand risk and how to manage it.