Futures Trading Contracts And Futures Market Exchanges
Here are the basics of futures contracts. When you are the seller of the contract you agree that you will supply the buyer a specfic amount of the item, it could be a physical commodity such as live cattle, coal or gas, or a financial instrument such as an index. The key point is that the price is set now but the item is delivered at a future date.
The important point to remember when trying to trade futures for a profit is that it is the current price that is being traded and not the settlement price, which is at the future date. This means we want to be buyers of the contract if we think that the price will increase, and sellers of the contract if it looks like it is going down.
Futures contracts are regulated by a number of large exchanges such as the the CBOT and the LIFFE. When you either buy or sell a contract most traders do not hold it until the settlement date, but usually will close the contract for a profit when the market moves in their favor.
The futures market was originally started to help people like farmers and merchants manage the risk of their products against the potential supply and demand of the market. In farming for example when there is a bumper crop of say corn the price can fall dramatically and hurt the farmer, but if they have already sold a contract at a certain price they can still get a fair price for their products.
The use of futures in the farming industry has many benefits such as allowing the farmer to be able to plan ahead as he already knows what kind of profit he can expect from his crop of say coffee beans. The price may not be the best and the merchant may make a killing but the risk is reduced.
By using a form of futures contract long before harvest time both the farmer and the merchant can reduce their risks by setting the price.
Today the futures market has changed a lot from the historical origins. There are now futures contracts on financial instruments such as stocks and bonds. broadly speaking futures contracts are split between commodity type products and financial type products. It is usually not that important because they are rarely held until expiration.
There are a number of major Futures Exchanges, The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was established in 1848 to allow farmers and merchants to negotiate future prices for their produce. The main task of the exchange was to standardize the quantity and quality of the produce that was traded. CBOT now offers futures contracts on many different underlying assets, including corn, oats, soybeans, wheat, silver and Treasury bonds.
In 1919, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was created. The exchange has provided a futures market for many commodities including pork bellies & live cattle. In 1982, it introduced a futures contract on the S&P 500 stock index.
The London International Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) was founded in 1982. Futures markets traded on LIFFE include the FTSE100, the GILT and Short Sterling. LIFFE has experienced huge growth, over 40% a year, since it started. In 2001 a record 216 million contracts were traded, representing approximately 96 trillion in value.
In Germany the EUREX is a big exchange and is 100% electronic, it started out as the DTB in 1990 before electronic systems became popular, at the time open outcry pits systems were still in use by many exchanges.
Currencies are also traded as futures, the dollar, pund and Euro are very heavily traded.
You can make a lot of money very fast by trading futures, mainly because of the leverage that can be obtained. At the same time of course it is just as easy to loose money if you don’t know what you are doing. It is very important when trading futures to have a good trading plan as well as having the discipline to stick to the plan and follow the rules.