Do Futures Contracts Protect Against Price Volatility?

The Wall Street Journal published a article showing that futures contracts are imperfect protection against price volatility because the side with the bad price will often attempt to change the contract, find grounds to declare the contract void, or simply walk away from the contract. The article discusses what happened as the price of cotton increased and then collapsed between 2012 and 2012. The history points out that the cost of enforcing a contract is often a significant transactions cost.