The futures market comes from the fact that some people are trading actual beans by growing, selling, shipping, buying, or cooking them. They are typically wil

The futures market comes from the fact that some people are trading actual beans by growing, selling, shipping, buying, or cooking them. They are typically willing to pay for price insurance to reduce their financial risk. (that could close your factory because of the weather, etc) (If they trade with other countries they are typically also willing to pay for currency insurance) At that point a secondary market emerges with arbitrages between different market and points in time. So far this is to the benefit of everyone. Farmers and Buyers get more stable prices. This secondary market pins into tertiary markets where you can try to outsmart other players, and to the extent that manipulation is possible it will push back into the primary price or more probable the "insurance" cost. This cost is paid by Joe Random. This is probably not beneficial but unavoidable and acceptable for having access to price insurance.