Participants in commodities exchanges can be broadly categorized into: - Hedgers: These include producers and consumers of commodities who use the futures market to mitigate price risk. For example, a farmer might sell futures contracts to lock in a price for their crop. - Speculators: These are traders who seek to profit from price fluctuations. They do not intend to take physical delivery of the commodity. - Arbitrageurs: These traders exploit price differences between different markets or contracts to make risk-free profits. - Brokers and Market Makers: These entities facilitate trades and provide liquidity to the market.