An Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation Approach to Commodity Markets

The present work provides an open-source, agent-based behavioral model primarily addressed to the dynamics associated with the commodities spot price formation, as well as variations and contrast patterns belonging to the exchanged quantity. The framework can flexibly be used for several commodities, but it has to be integrated and qualified with the modelization of producers' and buyers' behavior when used for the analysis of a specific commodity, stock, or group of merchandise. Due to the fact that various commodities or consumer artifacts are perceived and treated differently in several diverse contexts, the intended tasks or functions are mainly entrusted to those experts in the specific fields, who would find the software tool we designed a good starting point for their investigations. Toward achieving this aim, open-source code is provided along with detailed documentation on how to use, further develop, and enhance the present features of the proposed agent-based modeling and simulation software. This is publicly available at