Speculation Inventory

Speculation inventory is a type of inventory which is held in anticipation of price changes. A business may weigh the costs of incremental inventory against the risk that input prices will increase and build speculation inventory.

For example, I really need cheese in my baked potato recipe. But I think that cheese prices will go up next month due to some market changes. So I decide to buy more cheese now and stock it up as speculation inventory to avoid paying higher prices later.