[Tenoke]

>Saying that they were intended for hedging sounds like a very strong proposition to me

I think most people believe this since every textbook I've seen explains them and implies that this is what they are for.

[kqr]

On this subject, almost every textbook is wrong. Well, I shouldn't say wrong, but their models fail to predict and explain easily observed real-world behaviour in futures markets.

I can strongly recommend Williams' The Economic Function of Futures Markets[1]. It gave me a lot of those "ooh, now that makes more sense" experiences after having heard the faulty model used in textbooks over and over.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Economic-Function-Futures-Markets-Wil...