Yes, this almost happened to me once when I was trading futures. My broker called me several times throughout the day and I couldn't take the call. When I finally did, he told me to roll my contract forward that day otherwise I would have to take delivery of 1000 bushels of corn.

My grandfather in Colorado did the opposite once in the 1970s. He needed some cattle, so he bought a small quantity of cattle futures of some form (I was too young when I heard the story to remember the details) from a broker/commodity trader in Chicago.

When the contract approached the settlement date, the broker called to ask him to sell. Trouble was, my grandfather just wanted cows, not cash. The broker was frustrated to no end.

Long story short, my grandfather got the cattle, as the contract required, but was asked by the broker never to do business with them again.

N.B. Don't do this unless you're interested in financial silliness, or if the futures are really badly mispriced. It is a lot easier, and you get to see the cattle first, if you buy through a local cattle auction.

I don't know. Somebody has to take delivery of the cattle, so why not the guy who wants some cattle?

People do take delivery on commodities obviously but you don't want to go through a speculator for this.

yeah, this just makes the whole business of futures trading seem like a scam where the people actually interested in the things being traded are pawns.

Marvelous story, thanks for sharing.

I'd love to hear from someone that got stuck with the 1000 bushels of corn (or similar). What do you do? How in the world do you manage that?

There's a story online thats floated around for a while about a guy that ended up with like 10 tonnes of coal this way. Was delivered via barge somewhere if I recall correctly.

Edit: finally found it: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Special-Delivery

John C. Hull - Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives has details on an accidental cattle futures physical settlement.

https://www.passeidireto.com/arquivo/73586616/john-c-hull-op...

There's a great Planet Money story on the Onion King.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/09/19/649273647/epis...

You know, why didn’t Louis Sachar write a YA book about this?

That was an amazing episode

Worse it isn't 1000 bushes at your home it is at some transfer point several states away. If you are lucky it is an elevator that sends you a bill for storage and can unload them. If you are unlucky you need to get a truck (with a driver) there on short notice to get it out of there.

What if you just don't? You probably just get a larger bill.

Sure, but that can become a very big bill fast. Basically they can charge you (almost) whatever they want.

There are services you can call to help you out of this predicament. Obviously they charge a huge margin.

If I remember correctly, in contrast to WTI, you will get assigned a shipping/warehouse certificate for wheat/corn in a designated elevator somewhere. You'll have to pay the warehouse a daily carry cost but don't actually have to take it out of that warehouse (you can if you want to).

That reminds me of the GS Aluminum storage warehouse story.

True, but there will be checking to ensure that you want oil if you are not normally a destination for oil. Trying to deliver oil to someone without a loading dock will be a problem that hurts many people trying to correct.

100% false. Where are these facts coming from?

The specs for delivery are always very clear because price depends on where it needs to be delivered!

"Delivery shall be made free-on-board ("F.O.B.") at any pipeline or storage facility in Cushing, Oklahoma with pipeline access to Enterprise, Cushing storage or Enbridge, Cushing storage."

What does it mean to be "normally not a destination for oil" and who is doing this checking (do you realize the volume of oil that is traded monthly? The futures market being discussed here uses standardized contracts.

Not everyone is allowed to trade, there are rules if you don't have ability to accept oil they make it hard to get a contract that doesn't sell automatically. (not impossible, but a mistake guns up their processes so they have procedures to avoid it)

And you get the entire month of may to take delivery. If you become an accidental owner of crude oil tomorrow, you still have time to arrange a solution with someone that can take it. Financially, it doesn't sound like a good situation to be in though.