The commodity market offers the opportunistic financier the choice of using small quantities of their own money to control big amounts of products, including gold, currencies, and rural commodities.

A futures contract is a legally binding contract to deliver, if you are selling, or to take delivery, if you are buying, of a specific commodity, index, bond, or currency at a predetermined date or price. A futures contract can include everything from a standard size amount of wheat, oil, or a country’s currency. The amount and date of delivery of the contract are specified, though in almost all cases delivery is not taken as contracts are bought and sold for speculative or hedging purposes.

Futures are utilised by both people who use the particular commodity and by speculators. As an example, in May a farmer plants some corn, but does not know what corn will be selling for in November. He will be able to sell a futures contract for Nov and “lock in” the future selling price today. From another perspective stockholders can purchase a futures contract if they believe the cost of a security is going to understand, or they can sell a futures contract if they suspect the cost of a security is going to say no.

Futures are often thought of in the same category as options. While they are both derivatives, in that they derive their value from some base security, there is one very important difference. While options give the right, but not the obligation to buy or sell the underlying security, a futures contract is a legally binding obligation to buy or sell that same commodity. Thus, while options limit your loss to the price paid for that option, futures trading could lead to a loss of your entire investment and more to meet that obligation.

Another difference between the futures and the equities markets requires the utilization of word margin. Though the contract sizes for currencies are big ( often equivalent to over $100,000 for a single contract ), a backer does not need to sell or purchase a full contract. Rather, a margin deposit on the contract is maintained, which is basically a “good religion” amount of cash to guarantee your dues to the total amount of the futures contract. Minimum margin necessities change by broker, but are typically only a small part of the contract’s total value and aren’t related to the cost of the contract concerned.

Futures trades must be made thru futures brokers, who operate both full-service and discount operations, and might be related to the stock brokerage that you already deal with. Nonetheless popular discount brokers don’t handle futures contracts.

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