Speculation is about taking a risk to make a potential gain, while hedging is about reducing risk. Someone buying lumber futures as a hedge really doesn't want

Speculation is about taking a risk to make a potential gain, while hedging is about reducing risk. Someone buying lumber futures as a hedge really doesn't want lumber prices to go up - it's just an insurance protection in case it does, not a way to make profit. Whether you take delivery or not isn't exactly the point, since a speculator could take delivery of something then resell it for profit. I think some people did that for TP and masks...