FFAs offer shipowners, charters, traders and financial institutions a means of protecting themselves against the inherent volatility of freight rates and the opportunity to generate alpha. They are able to do this thanks to a market with enough depth to trade into and out of positions with ease, at the same time taking advantage of the ability of FFAs to provide forward pricing trends. As a result, dry bulk FFAs annual volume surpassed the physical market with 1.65m lots cleared in 2019 equivalent to more than 3.6b tonnes of physical cargo. The market has continued to attract strong levels of liquidity, with a notional value of $21.1bn in 2019.