I think your view of how the markets work is a little simplistic.  It is a little more involved than what we do at the local elevator of driving in, dumping a load, then driving home with a check.  Without the paper pushing of bushels, there would be no way to develop a price for the local elevator.  The penalties are there in margin calls and costs to liquidate a poor position.

This is a pretty simplistic explaination also.

We all knew happy days would be short lived, we just didn't realize it would be so short.  Maybe by spring everything will have deflated and we will be back in more familiar territory again.