Salmon futures and the Fish Pool market in the context of the CAPM and a three-factor model

Abstract

Futures on fresh farmed salmon traded at the Fish Pool market in Norway are analyzed in the context of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and a corresponding three-factor model where contracts are separated based on their maturities. Looking into 1 month; 6 months and 12 months contracts, we find that all alphas and most betas are statistically insignificant. We conclude that the CAPM equilibrium condition holds and that Salmon futures prices move largely uncorrelated with the market portfolio and therefore offer no systematic risk premium. The latter documents that Fish Pool futures should be considered as a pure hedging instrument rather than an investment asset.