Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Agrarian Studies, grade: 1,0, Hamburg School of Business Administration gGmbH (Department of Finance & Accounting of HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration), course: Specialisation Finance, language: English, abstract: The assignment deals with the question whether derivatives harm society as a whole. The central issue is a possible impact of derivatives prices on present prices for agricultural commodities. In order to provide the necessary background knowledge, the terms derivatives, varieties, valuation, market participants and principles of operation are explained. After recognising theoretical knowledge and the results of different studies, it turns out that there is no empirical evidence for plausible harming impacts of over speculating index investors. Further studies have to be conducted in future in order to provide a reliable proof for policy makers.