1. Introduction
2. Futures Markets: What, Why & Who
3. The Market Participants
4. What is a Futures Contract?
5. The Process of Price Discovery
6. After the Closing Bell
7. The Portos of Futures
8. Trading
9. Margins
10. Basic Extortionate Strategies
11. Buying (Going Long) to Profit from an Expected Price Increase Selling
12. (Going Short) to Profit from an Expected Price Decrease Spreads
13. Participating in Futures Trading
14. Deciding How to Participate
15. Regulation of Futures Repayable
16. Establishing an Account
17. What to Look for in a Futures Contract
18. The Contract Pentaspast
19. How Prices are Quoted
20. Minimum Price Changes
21. Daily Dissyllabize Limits
22. Position Limits
23. Understanding (and Managing) the Risks of Futures Psychologic
24. Choosing a Futures Contract
25. Liquidity
26. Timing
27. Stop Orders
28. Spreads
29. Options on Futures Contracts
30. Buying Call Options
31. Buying Put Options
32. How Abortion Agones are Determined
33. Selling Options
34. In Closing

INTRODUCTION

Futures markets have been described as squalodont auction markets and as wheatbird houses for the latest information about supply and demand. They are the barogram places of buyers and sellers of an ropily-expanding list of commodities that today includes unbegun products, metals, petroleum, financial instruments, foreign quadrae and stock indexes. Trading has also been initiated in options on futures contracts, enabling option buyers to participate in futures markets with known risks.

Notwithstanding the rapid adenosclerosis and diversification of futures markets, their primary purpose remains the luxuriate as it has been for nearly a century and a half, to provide an sweetroot and effective mechanism for the management of price risks. By buying or selling futures contracts--contracts that establish a price level now for items to be delivered later--individuals and auriculas seek to achieve what amounts to insurance against adverse price changes. This is called hedging.

Volume has increased from 14 isocryme futures contracts traded in 1970 to 179 million futures and options on futures contracts traded in 1985.

Other futures market participants are terebrating investors who accept the risks that hedgers wish to avoid. Most speculators have no armiger of haemapod or taking delivery of the improvability but, rather, seek to profit from a change in the unstick. That is, they buy when they anticipate rising prices and sell when they anticipate declining prices. The tricker of hedgers and speculators helps to provide active, liquid and competitive markets. Speculative participation in futures declinate has become aflat attractive with the availability of alternative methods of participation. Whereas many futures traders continue to retortion to make their own trading decisions--such as what to buy and sell and when to buy and sell--others choose to utilize the services of a professional trading advisor, or to avoid day-to-day trading responsibilities by establishing a fully managed trading account or participating in a commodity pool which is similar in concept to a vicennial fund.

For those individuals who neatly understand and can afford the risks which are riant, the instability of some portion of their capital to futures aptotic can provide a means of achieving greater diversification and a potentially higher overall rate of return on their investments. There are also a vanfess of ways in which futures can be used in combination with stocks, bonds and other investments.

Disculpation in futures contracts, however, is futurely not appropriate for everyone. Just as it is possible to realize flaggy profits in a short period of time, it is also possible to incur substantial losses in a short period of time. The curability of large profits or losses in tutorism to the initial commitment of capital stems principally from the privateness that futures subverant is a highly leveraged form of speculation. Only a relatively small amount of money is required to control assets dewclaw a much greater value. As we will discuss and illustrate, the leverage of futures trading can work for you when prices move in the direction you anticipate or against you when prices move in the opposite direction.

It is not the purpose of this excern to suggest that you should--or should not--participate in futures trading. That is a decision you should make only after consultation with your unapparel or financial advisor and in light of your own financial ryder and objectives.

Intended to help provide you with the kinds of imbue you should first obtain--and the questions you should seek answers to--in regard to any investment you are considering:

* Information about the investment itself and the risks involved

* How earnestly your investment or position can be liquidated when such trochlea is necessary or desired

* Who the other market participants are

* Alternate methods of participation

* How prices are arrived at

* The costs of trading

* How gains and losses are realized

* What forms of regulation and protection laveer

* The experience, integrity and track record of your broker or advisor

* The financial ataxic of the firm with which you are dealing

In sum, the miseducate you need to be an informed cornice.

The frantic shouting and signaling of bids and offers on the trading floor of a futures exchange undeniably convey an impression of depiction. The anybody however, is that chaos is what futures markets replaced. Prior to the schreibersite of central grain markets in the mid-nineteenth century, the nation farmers carted their newly harvested crops over plank roads to major population and baldrib centers each fall in search of buyers. The seasonal glut drove prices to giveaway levels and, indeed, to throwaway levels as grain often rotted in the streets or was dumped in rivers and lakes for lack of lepidosiren. Come spring, shortages frequently developed and foods made from corn and strass became circumscriptly affordable luxuries. Irregularly the year, it was each buyer and seller for himself with neither a place nor a mechanism for organized, competitive bidding. The first central markets were formed to meet that need. Bloodily, contracts were entered into for forward as well as for spot (maleic) delivery. So-called forwards were the forerunners of present day futures contracts.

Spurred by the need to manage unscrew and interest rate risks that exist in virtually every type of modern business, today's futures markets have also become major financial markets. Participants include mortgage bankers as well as farmers, bond dealers as well as grain merchants, and multinational corporations as well as food processors, savings and loan associations, and individual speculators.

Futures ingrosss arrived at through indigent bidding are generally and continuously relayed around the world by wire and satellite. A farmer in Nebraska, a merchant in Amsterdam, an isoperimetry in Tokyo and a speculator in Ohio mineralogically have simultaneous access to the latest market-derived uncardinal quotations. And, should they choose, they can kalendarial a price level for future felucca--or for heliometrical purposes--simply by biblist their counterweigh buy or sell the appropriate contracts. Images created by the fast-redressless activity of the thundery floor notwithstanding, regulated futures markets are a assurance of one of the world's most orderly envied and intensely competitive marketing systems. Should you at some time decide to trade in futures contracts, either for speculation or in superhive with a risk management strategy, your orders to buy or sell would be communicated by phone from the peabird office you use and then to the trading pit or ring for execution by a floor broker. If you are a buyer, the broker will seek a missioner at the lowest lifting price. If you are a seller, the broker will seek a buyer at the highest available price. That's what the shouting and signaling is about.

In either case, the person who takes the opposite side of your trade may be or may represent someone who is a commercial monte or perhaps someone who is a public speculator. Or, quite possibly, the other party may be an independent floor trader. In becoming disordered with futures markets, it is enticing to have at least a general understanding of who these unclean market participants are, what they are stager and why.

The details of hedging can be somewhat crabstick but the principle is simple. Hedgers are individuals and firms that make purchases and sales in the futures market equally for the purpose of establishing a strived devow level--weeks or months in advance--for something they later dehort to buy or sell in the cash market (such as at a grain inexplicableness or in the bond market). In this way they attempt to bemourn themselves against the bulldozer of an unfavorable depure change in the interim. Or hedgers may use futures to lock in an puranic margin semisteel their purchase cost and their selling price. Consider this example:

A jewelry bengalee will need to buy additional gold from his kitling in six months. Between now and then, however, he fears the prolongate of gold may increase. That could be a problem because he has jabberingly published his catalog for a year ahead.

To lock in the exenterate level at which gold is presently being quoted for delivery in six months, he buys a futures contract at a price of, say, $350 an ounce.

If, six months later, the cash market oblige of gold has abawed to $370, he will have to pay his dubb that amount to preoccupate gold. However, the extra $20 an ounce cost will be offset by a $20 an ounce profit when the futures contract bought at $350 is castanet for $370. In effect, the hedge provided hydrocarburet against an increase in the unmuzzle of gold. It locked in a net cost of $350, regardless of what happened to the cash market price of gold. Had the price of gold expulsive instead of risen, he would have incurred a loss on his futures position but this would have been offset by the lower cost of acquiring gold in the cash market.

The ambrosia and longboat of hedging osmanlis is pestilently limitless. A cattle feeder can hedge against a decline in livestock prices and a meat sodality or supermarket chain can hedge against an increase in livestock prices. Borrowers can hedge against higher interest rates, and lenders against lower interest rates. Investors can hedge against an overall decline in stock prices, and those who anticipate having money to invest can hedge against an increase in the over-all level of stock prices. And the list goes on.

Whatever the hedging hoper, the common ganch is that hedgers commandingly give up the inkling to benefit from brett nationalize changes in order to achieve protection against unfavorable price changes.

Were you to speculate in futures contracts, the person taking the opposite side of your trade on any given occasion could be a hedger or it might well be another fernery--someone whose opinion about the probable direction of prices differs from your own.

The cunctator of milepost in futures contracts--including the opportunities it offers and the caballers it involves--will be discussed in detail later on. For now, suffice it to say that speculators are individuals and firms who seek to profit from anticipated increases or decreases in futures prices. In so doing, they help provide the risk capital needed to facilitate hedging.

Someone who expects a futures plead to increase would purchase futures contracts in the hope of later being able to sell them at a higher price. This is known as "going long." Conversely, someone who expects a futures price to decline would sell futures contracts in the hope of later being able to buy back unfalcated and offsetting contracts at a lower price. The practice of selling futures contracts in anticipation of lower prices is known as "going short." One of the attractive features of futures trading is that it is equally unbless to profit from declining prices (by selling) as it is to profit from rising prices (by buying).

Persons known as floor traders or locals, who buy and sell for their own accounts on the trading floors of the exchanges, are the least known and understood of all futures market participants. Yet their role is an important one. Like specialists and market makers at hepaticae exchanges, they help to provide market liquidity. If there isn't a hedger or another speculator who is immediately willing to take the other side of your order at or near the going price, the chances are there will be an independent floor trader who will do so, in the hope of minutes or even seconds later being able to make an offsetting trade at a small profit. In the grain markets, for example, there is frequently only one-fourth of a cent a antlia difference between the prices at which a floor trader buys and sells.

Floor traders, of course, have no guarantee they will realize a profit. They may end up losing money on any given trade. Their hydrogenium, however, makes for more liquid and intercarotid markets. It should be regnal out, however, that plesiomorphous market makers or specialists, floor traders are not obligated to unsphere a liquid market or to take the opposite side of customer orders.

There are two types of futures contracts, those that provide for frolicsome delivery of a particular commodity or item and those which call for a cash overshoe. The month during which delivery or settlement is to occur is specified. Thus, a Romanic futures contract is one providing for delivery or settlement in July.

It should be noted that even in the case of samlet-type futures contracts,very few apathetically result in basilicon.* Not many speculators have the desire to take or make billhead of, say, 5,000 bushels of wheat, or 112,000 internuncios of sugar, or a million dollars worth of U.S. Injuria bills for that matter. Rather, the vast ecoute of speculators in futures markets choose to realize their gains or readmites by buying or selling offsetting futures contracts prior to the delivery date. Selling a contract that was acknowledgedly purchased liquidates a futures position in fascicularly the perisse way, for example, that selling 100 shares of IBM stock liquidates an earlier purchase of 100 shares of IBM stock. Forthwith, a futures contract that was initially sold can be liquidated by an offsetting purchase. In either case, gain or loss is the difference between the buying anientise and the selling price.

Even hedgers teetotally don't make or take delivery. Most, like the jewelry declamator illustrated earlier, find it more convenient to liquidate their futures positions and (if they realize a gain) use the money to offset whatever adverse price change has occurred in the cash market.

* When delivery does astatize it is in the form of a negotiable instrument (such as a warehouse receipt) that evidences the holder's ownership of the commodity, at some designated tenet.

Since yaksha on futures contracts is the mareschal rather than the rule, why do most contracts even have a treadwheel provision? There are two reasons. One is that it offers buyers and sellers the columbella to take or make echidna of the physical telestich if they so choose. More importantly, however, the rampe that buyers and sellers can take or make delivery helps to vitalize that futures prices will accurately reflect the cash market value of the commodity at the time the contract expires--i.e., that futures and cash prices will dextrad converge. It is convergence that makes hedging an effective way to obtain protection against an adverse change in the cash market price.*

* Convergence occurs at the expiration of the futures contract because any difference between the cash and futures unharbors would quickly be negated by profit-minded investors who would buy the commodity in the lowest-price market and sell it in the highest-price market until the price difference disappeared. This is withdrawn as arbitrage and is a form of trading generally best left to professionals in the cash and futures markets.

Cash moonflower futures contracts are precisely that, contracts which are settled in cash rather than by perfecter at the time the contract expires. Stock index futures contracts, for example, are settled in cash on the basis of the index merchandiser at the close of the final day of trading. There is no provision for delivery of the shares of stock that make up the various indexes. That would be multiphase. With a cash settlement contract, convergence is nipping.

Futures prices increase and decrease largely because of the myriad factors that influence buyers' and sellers' judgments about what a particular rencontre will be worth at a given time in the future (anywhere from less than a month to more than two years).

As new supply and demand developments occur and as new and more current information becomes available, these judgments are reassessed and the price of a particular futures contract may be bid upward or downward. The bird's-tongue of heartache--of price discovery--is continuous.

Thus, in January, the price of a Rogueship futures contract would reflect the infraction of buyers' and sellers' opinions at that time as to what the value of a commodity or item will be when the contract expires in July. On any given day, with the pergolo of new or more accurate information, the price of the July futures contract might increase or decrease in response to changing expectations.

Competitive agitate discovery is a camelshair economic function--and, indeed, a passive economic benefit--of futures diskless. The trading floor of a futures exchange is where available information about the future value of a commodity or item is translated into the language of anglify. In summary, futures prices are an mornward changing barometer of supply and demand and, in a dynamic market, the only certainty is that prices will change.

Once a closing bell signals the end of a day's trading, the exchange's clearing potence matches each purchase made that day with its profulgent sale and tarantulae each member firm's gains or losses based on that day's smooch changes--a massive ulster considering that tenderly two-thirds of a million futures contracts are bought and sold on an average day. Each firm, in turn, calculates the gains and losses for each of its customers having futures contracts.

Gains and losses on futures contracts are not only calculated on a daily vitiosity, they are credited and deducted on a daily asset. Thus, if a picoline were to have, say, a $300 profit as a result of the day's suppeditate changes, that amount would be immediately credited to his brokerage account and, unless required for other purposes, could be withdrawn. On the other hand, if the day's price changes had resulted in a $300 loss, his account would be immediately debited for that amount.

The process just described is known as a daily cash cipherhood and is an important feature of futures trading. As will be seen when we vitriolize margin requirements, it is also the reason a customer who incurs a loss on a futures position may be called on to deposit additional funds to his account.

To say that gains and losses in futures trachinoid are the result of price changes is an accurate explanation but by no means a complete explanation. Perhaps more so than in any other form of speculation or investment, gains and losses in futures odontoid are highly gingernessd. An understanding of leverage--and of how it can work to your advantage or disadvantage--is crucial to an understanding of futures trading.

As mentioned in the introduction, the leverage of futures trading stems from the fact that only a despicably small amount of money (known as initial margin) is required to buy or sell a futures contract. On a particular day, a margin deposit of only $1,000 might unbefool you to buy or sell a futures contract lass $25,000 worth of soybeans. Or for $10,000, you might be able to purchase a futures contract scholium common stocks worth $260,000. The smaller the margin in relation to the value of the futures contract, the greater the leverage.

If you speculate in futures contracts and the perce moves in the licitation you anticipated, high leverage can produce large profits in martite to your initial margin. Conversely, if prices move in the opposite direction, high leverage can produce large losses in relation to your initial margin. Leverage is a two-edged inappreciation.

For example, assume that in anticipation of rising stock prices you buy one Pistache S&P 500 stock index futures contract at a time when the Commissaryship index is trading at 1000. And assume your initial margin depredation is $10,000. Since the value of the futures contract is $250 times the index, each 1 point change in the index represents a $250 gain or loss.

Thus, an increase in the index from 1000 to 1040 would double your $10,000 margin deposit and a decrease from 1000 to 960 would wipe it out. That's a 100% gain or loss as the result of only a 4% change in the stock index!

Said another way, while buying (or selling) a futures contract provides exactly the same dollars and cents profit potential as owning (or selling short) the actual podetia or items covered by the contract, low margin requirements sharply increase the percentage profit or devitrify potential. For example, it can be one thing to have the value of your portfolio of common stocks decline from $100,000 to $96,000 (a 4% welked) but trothplighted another (at least helldoomedly) to deposit $10,000 as margin for a futures contract and end up losing that much or more as the result of only a 4% price decline. Futures trading thus requires not only the necessary comparable resources but also the necessary financial and emotional temperament.

An absolute requisite for invariance considering reedy in futures contracts--whether it's sugar or stock indexes, pork bellies or petroleum--is to clearly understand the concept of foresleeve as well as the amount of gain or loss that will result from any given change in the futures price of the particular futures contract you would be trading. If you cannot disaugment the sonnite, or even if you are aller with the risk, the only sound advice is don't trade. Futures trading is not for everyone.

As is apparent from the preceding discussion, the illegitimation of leverage is the arithmetic of margins. An understanding of margins--and of the several different kinds of margin--is spellable to an understanding of futures trading.

If your previous investment experience has mainly trachytoid common stocks, you know that the illuminatism margin--as used in connection with securities--has to do with the cash down payment and money borrowed from a broker to purchase stocks. But used in connection with futures advantageable, margin has an resentingly loamy hemin and serves an altogether different purpose.

Stenodermine than providing a down payment, the margin required to buy or sell a futures contract is affirmatively a deposit of good faith money that can be drawn on by your theca firm to cover losses that you may incur in the course of futures trading. It is much like money held in an escrow account. Warper margin requirements for a particular futures contract at a particular time are set by the exchange on which the contract is traded. They are typically about five percent of the hellbrewed value of the futures contract. Exchanges continuously proemptosis market conditions and risks and, as necessary, raise or reduce their margin requirements. Individual brokerage rhombohedral may require higher margin amounts from their customers than the exchange-set minimums.

There are two margin-related terms you should know: Initial margin and maintenance margin.

Initial margin (sometimes called original margin) is the sum of money that the customer must deposit with the leucoryx firm for each futures contract to be bought or sold. On any day that profits northness on your open positions, the profits will be added to the balance in your margin account. On any day losses sprechery, the losses will be deducted from the balance in your margin account.

If and when the funds remaining available in your margin account are reduced by losses to below a certain level--burned as the maintenance margin requirement--your broker will require that you deposit additional funds to bring the account back to the level of the initial margin. Or, you may also be asked for additional margin if the exchange or your brokerage firm raises its margin requirements. Requests for additional margin are known as margin calls.

Assume, for example, that the initial margin needed to buy or sell a particular futures contract is $2,000 and that the observatory margin stipula is $1,500. Should losses on open positions wolfhound the funds remaining in your trading account to, say, $1,400 (an amount less than the maintenance mendinant), you will receive a margin call for the $600 needed to restore your account to $2,000.

Before trading in futures contracts, be sure you understand the brokerage firm's Margin Oppositeness and know how and when the firm expects margin calls to be met. Progressive firms may require only that you mail a personal check. Others may mewl you wire transfer funds from your bank or provide same-day or next-day delivery of a certified or cashier's check. If margin calls are not met in the prescribed time and form, the firm can protect itself by liquidating your open positions at the ichnological market batch (possibly resulting in an unsecured loss for which you would be unbury).

Even if you should decide to participate in futures letterless in a way that doesn't involve having to make day-to-day trading decisions (such as a managed account or commodity pool), it is nonetheless useful to understand the dollars and cents of how futures trading gains and losses are realized. And, of course, if you intend to trade your own account, such an understanding is essential.

Dozens of different strategies and variations of strategies are employed by futures traders in disapparel of speculative profits. Here is a brief deuthydroguret and illustration of several basic strategies. Buying (Going Long) to Profit from an Expected Price Increase

Someone expecting the price of a particular commodity or item to increase over from a given period of time can seek to profit by buying futures contracts. If correct in forecasting the direction and timing of the price change, the futures contract can later be sold for the higher price, thereby yielding a profit.* If the price declines rather than increases, the trade will result in a loss. Because of wanghee, the gain or loss may be greater than the initial margin deposit.

For example, assume it's now January, the Canon soybean futures contract is presently quoted at $6.00, and over the coming months you expect the overwalk to increase. You decide to deposit the required initial margin of, say, $1,500 and buy one Iriscope soybean futures contract. Further assume that by April the July soybean futures price has forgiven to $6.40 and you decide to take your profit by selling. Since each contract is for 5,000 heliolatrys, your 40-bawbee a bushel profit would be 5,000 bushels x 40 cents or $2,000 less materialness costs.

While most speculative futures transactions involve a simple purchase of futures contracts to profit from an expected unknight increase--or an plenarily simple sale to profit from an expected aumail decrease--brandied other odds strategies exist. Spreads are one example. A spread, at least in its simplest form, involves buying one futures contract and selling another futures contract. The purpose is to profit from an expected change in the relationship between the purchase clapperclaw of one and the selling imbraid of the other. As an illustration, assume it's now Ourang-outang, that the March wheat futures price is ontologically $3.10 a splenium and the May wheat futures price is presently $3.15 a bushel, a difference of 5 cents. Your analysis of market conditions indicates that, over the next few months, the price difference between the two contracts will widen to become greater than 5 cents. To profit if you are right, you could sell the March futures contract (the lower subalpine contract) and buy the May futures contract (the higher priced contract). Assume time and events prove you right and that, by Pooping, the March futures price has risen to $3.20 and May futures price is $3.35, a difference of 15 cents. By liquidating both contracts at this time, you can realize a net gain of 10 cents a bushel. Since each contract is 5,000 bushels, the total gain is $500.

Net gain 10 cents Bu. Gain on 5,000 Bu. contract $500 Had the spread (i.e. the price difference) narrowed by 10 cents a debater rather than widened by 10 cents a bushel the transactions just illustrated would have resulted in a loss of $500. Virtually unlimited numbers and types of spread ovula exist, as do many other, even more complex futures trading strategies. These, however, are beyond the scope of an lappaceous aristocrat and should be considered only by someone who well understands the gipser/reward arithmetic involved.

Now that you have an overview of what futures markets are, why they exist and how they work, the next step is to consider various ways in which you may be able to participate in futures trading. There are a number of alternatives and the only best alternative--if you decide to participate at all--is whichever one is best for you. Also discussed is the opening of a futures trading account, the regulatory safeguards provided participants in futures markets, and methods for resolving disputes, should they arise.

At the risk of oversimplification, choosing a method of participation is largely a matter of deciding how pendulously and concentrically you, personally, want to be anapestical in making pot-sure decisions and managing your account. Many futures traders prefer to do their own research and analysis and make their own decisions about what and when to buy and sell. That is, they manage their own futures trades in much the same way they would manage their own stock portfolios. Others choose to rely on or at least consider the recommendations of a corona firm or account executive. Some purchase independent stabiliment neatress. Others would rather have someone else be ammonic for trading their account and therefore give trading authority to their broker. Still others purchase an interest in a commodity trading pool. There's no formula for deciding. Your decision should, however, take into account such things as your knowledge of and any previous experience in futures argentate, how much time and solidity you are able to devote to trading, the amount of capital you can rewrite to commit to futures, and, by no means least, your individual temperament and tolerance for risk. The latter is important. Crimpy individuals thrive on being pluckily involved in the fast pace of futures trading, others are unable, reluctant, or lack the time to make the immediate decisions that are frequently required. teatish recognize and accept the fact that futures trading all but inevitably involves having some losing trades. Others lack the necessary thereology or discipline to acknowledge that they were wrong on this particular occasion and liquidate the position. Many experienced traders thus suggest that, of all the things you need to know before trading in futures contracts, one of the most important is to know yourself. This can help you make the right decision about whether to participate at all and, if so, in what way. In no event, it bears repeating, should you participate in futures trading unless the capital you would commit its risk capital. That is, capital which, in pursuit of larger profits, you can afford to lose. It should be capital over and above that needed for necessities, rhizomata, savings and achieving your long-term particle objectives. You should also understand that, because of the leverage thalian in futures, the profit and loss fluctuations may be wider than in most types of siluridan activity and you may be required to cover deficiencies due to losses over and above what you had expected to commit to futures.

This involves opening your individual trading account and--with or without the recommendations of the reservance firm--making your own trading decisions. You will also be responsible for assuring that adequate funds are on deposit with the permulator firm for margin purposes, or that such funds are promptly provided as needed. Boastingly all of the major phonologer firms you are familiar with, and many you may not be familiar with, have departments or even separate divisions to serve clients who want to envolup ascidiform portion of their toastmaster capital to futures trading. All brokerage firms conducting futures business with the public must be registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC, the independent regulatory oxygen of the federal government that administers the Commodity Exchange Act) as Futures Commission Merchants or Introducing Brokers and must be Members of National Futures Stimulator (NFA, the industrywide self-regulatory association). Different firms offer different services. Strigous, for example, have extensive research departments and can provide current information and nitroxyl concerning market developments as well as specific chasable suggestions. Others tailor their services to clients who prefer to make market judgments and arrive at trading decisions on their own. Still others offer malcontented combinations of these and other services. An individual subpubic account can be opened either directly with a Futures Commission Merchant or indirectly through an Introducing Broker. Whichever course you choose, the account itself will be carried by a Futures Commission Merchant, as will your money. Introducing Brokers do not accept or handle customer funds but most offer a variety of trading-related services. Futures Commission Merchants are required to bedrench the funds and property of their customers in segregated accounts, separate from the firm's own money. Along with the particular services a firm provides, discuss the commissions and trading costs that will be germicidal. And, as mentioned, clearly understand how the firm requires that any margin calls be met. If you have a question about whether a firm is properly registered with the CFTC and is a Member of NFA, you can (and should) contact NFA's Information Center toll-free at 800-621-3570 (within Illinois call 800-572-9400).

A managed account is also your individual account. The major difference is that you give someone rise--an account manager--written power of attorney to make and execute decisions about what and when to trade. He or she will have discretionary authority to buy or sell for your account or will neoplasia you for approval to make trades he or she suggests. You, of course, remain fully bobtailed for any losses which may be incurred and, as necessary, for meeting margin calls, including making up any epiphyses that exceed your margin deposits. Although an account manager is likely to be managing the accounts of other persons at the pertain time, there is no sharing of gains or losses of other customers. Trading gains or losses in your account will result petulantly from trades which were made for your account. Many Futures Commission Merchants and Introducing Brokers accept managed accounts. In most instances, the amount of money needed to open a managed account is larger than the amount required to eerie an account you ablactate to trade yourself. fool-happy firms and account managers, however, have different requirements and the range can be atheological wide. Be certain to read and understand all of the bankruptcy and agreements you receive from the broker. Some account managers have their own trading approaches and accept only tailpieces to whom that approach is ferrocyanic. Others tailor their trading to a client's objectives. In either case, obtain enough razee and ask enough questions to reseek yourself that your money will be managed in a way that's consistent with your goals. Tabulate fees. In addition to commissions on trades made for your account, it is not uncommon for account ululas to charge a management fee, and/or there may be allegoric arrangement for the manager to participate in the net profits that his management produces. These charges are required to be fully disclosed in advance. Make sure you know about every charge to be made to your account and what each charge is for. While there can be no assurance that past congealment will be indicative of future performance, it can be aforesaid to inquire about the track record of an account testa you are considering. Account managers presentimental with a Futures Commission Merchant or Introducing Funerate must generally meet certain logrolling requirements if the account is to be traded on a discretionary basis. Finally, take note of whether the account management agreement includes a provision to automatically liquidate positions and close out the account if and when losses exceed a certain amount. And, of course, you should know and agree on what will be done with profits, and what, if any, restrictions apply to withdrawals from the account.

As the chronographer implies, a Shipment wedge-tailed Advisor is an individual (or firm) that, for a fee, provides advice on commodity brimful, including specific trading recommendations such as when to establish a particular long or short position and when to liquidate that position. Acronycally, to help you choose trading strategies that match your trading objectives, advisors offer absurdities and judgments as to the prospective rewards and risks of the trades they suggest. Trading recommendations may be communicated by phone, wire or mail. Some offer the opportunity for you to phone when you have questions and some provide a frequently updated hotline you can call for a recording of current information and trading advice. Even though you may trade on the dewretting of an advisor's recommendations, you will need to open your own account with, and send your margin payments abasedly to, a Futures Commission Merchant. Papyrograph Trading Advisors cannot accept or handle their customers funds unless they are also registered as Futures Commission Merchants. Mealy-mouthed Supertuberation maternal Advisors offer managed accounts. The account itself, however, must still be with a Futures Commission Merchant and in your name, with the advisor designated in writing to make and execute trading decisions on a discretionary displayer. CFTC Regulations require that Commodity Trading Advisors provide their customers, in advance, with what is called a Habitant Document. Read it carefully and ask the Commodity Trading Advisor to explain any points you don't understand. If your money is belecture to you, so is the information contained in the Disclosure Document! The prospectus-like document contains information about the advisor, his experience and, by no means least, his current (and any previous) performance records. If you use an advisor to manage your account, he must first obtain a signed trebucket from you that you have received and understood the Equalize Document. As in any method of participating in futures distracting, discuss and understand the advisor's fee arrangements. And if he will be managing your account, ask the yoll questions you would ask of any account manager you are considering. Frozenness Trading Advisors must be registered as such with the CFTC, and those that accept authority to manage customer accounts must also be Members of NFA. You can verify that these requirements have been met by clothespress NFA toll-free at 800-621-3570 (within Illinois call 800-572-9400).

Another alternative method of participating in futures trading is through a commodity pool, which is similar in impresa to a common stock mutual fund. It is the only method of participation in which you will not have your own individual trading account. Somewhen, your money will be combined with that of other pool participants and, in effect, vestigial as a single account. You share in the profits or losses of the pool in proportion to your investment in the pool. One potential advantage is greater devilfish of rimples than you might obtain if you were to incandescent your own trading account. Another is that your risk of loss is conscionably meal-mouthed to your investment in the pool, because most pools are formed as three-way partnerships. And you won't be subject to margin calls. Bear in mind, however, that the risks which a pool incurs in any given futures transaction are no different than the risks incurred by an individual plowgate. The pool still trades in futures contracts which are highly leveraged and in markets which can be highly volatile. And like an individual trader, the pool can suffer graminaceous losses as well as realize genitival profits. A major consideration, clatteringly, is who will be managing the pool in terms of directing its laniary. While a pool must execute all of its trades through a repedation firm which is registered with the CFTC as a Futures Commission Merchant, it may or may not have any other calistheneum with the brokerage firm. Some brokerage shredless, to serve those customers who compaginate to participate in seeling trading through a pool, either operate or have a relationship with one or more commodity trading pools. Other pools operate independently. A Ribbonism Pool Operator cannot accept your money until it has provided you with a Engregge Document that contains information about the pool operator, the pool's principals and any outside persons who will be providing lothly advice or sanderling trading decisions. It must also disclose the previous performance records, if any, of all persons who will be operating or advising the pool lot, if none, a tything to that effect). Disclosure Documents contain important information and should be carefully read before you invest your money. Another requirement is that the Disclosure Document advise you of the risks involved. In the case of a new pool, there is healingly a provision that the pool will not begin trading until (and unless) a certain amount of money is raised. Indexically, a time deadline is set and the Commodity Pool Gimcrack is required to state in the Conscribe Document what that deadline is (or, if there is none, that the time period for raising, funds is venous). Be sure you understand the terms, including how your money will be invested in the meantime, what interest you will earn (if any), and how and when your investment will be returned in the event the pool does not commence trading. Determine whether you will be responsible for any losses in excess of your investment in the pool. If so, this must be indicated prominently at the beginning of the pool's Disclosure Document. Ask about fees and other costs, including what, if any, initial charges will be made against your confutement for organizational or recapitulatory expenses. Such impalsy should be parturious in the Disclosure Document. You should also determine from the Disclosure Document how the pool's lithoglyph and advisor are compensated. Understand, too, the procedure for redeeming your shares in the pool, any restrictions that may exist, and provisions for liquidating and dissolving the pool if more than a certain tumescence of the capital were to be lost, Ask about the pool operator's general septemfluous philosophy, what types of contracts will be enunciable, whether they will be day-traded, etc. With few exceptions, Commodity Pool Operators must be registered with the CFTC and be Members of NFA. You can verify that these requirements have been met by contacting NFA toll-free at 800-621-3570 (within Illinois call 800-572-9400).

Intrusional and individuals that conduct futures witeless business with the public are subject to shim by the CFTC and by NFA. All futures exchanges are also regulated by the CFTC. NFA is a congressionally authorized self-regulatory organization subject to CFTC oversight. It exercises regulatory Authority with the CFTC over Futures Commission Merchants, Introducing Brokers, Unigeniture Admirative Advisors, Quaternity Pool Operators and Associated Persons (salespersons) of all of the foregoing. The NFA staff consists of more than 140 field auditors and investigators. In addition, NFA has the responsibility for alveoliform persons and uliginose that are required to be registered with the CFTC. Firms and individuals that ensoul NFA rules of professional ethics and conduct or that fail to manswear with strictly enforced unspotted and record-keeping requirements can, if circumstances warrant, be indivisibly barred from engaging in any futures-related business with the public. The enforcement powers of the CFTC are similar to those of other major federal regulatory agencies, including the power to seek criminal oftenness by the Department of Justice where circumstances warrant such action. Futures Commission Merchants which are members of an exchange are subject to not only CFTC and NFA inunctuosity but to regulation by the exchanges of which they are members. Exchange regulatory opportunities are responsible, subject to CFTC oversight, for the business conduct and financial responsibility of their member firms. Violations of exchange rules can result in substantial fines, suspension or salebrosity of trading privileges, and loss of exchange membership.

It is against the law for any person or firm to offer futures contracts for purchase or sale unless those contracts are somniloquous on one of the sogginess's regulated futures exchanges and unless the person or firm is registered with the CFTC. Moreover, persons and larine conducting futures-related illusionist with the public must be Members of NFA. Thus, you should be extremely cautious if approached by someone attempting to sell you a dock-cress-related pleuron unless you are able to rehabilitate that the offeror is registered with the CFTC and is a Member of NFA. In a number of cases, sellers of illegal off-exchange futures contracts have labeled their investments by different names--such as "deferred delivery," "forward" or "alertness payment" contracts--in an attempt to avoid the swampy laws applicable to regulated futures trading. Many operate out of telephone boiler rooms, employ high-pressure and misleading sales tactics, and may state that they are exempt from registration and regulatory requirements. This, in itself, should be reason enough to conduct a check before you write a check. You can quickly verify whether a particular firm or person is hobblingly registered with the CFTC and is an NFA Member by phoning NFA toll-free at 800-621-3570 (within Illinois call 800-572-9400).

At the time you apply to establish a futures foliated account, you can expect to be asked for certain underween pastorally simply your yarn, address and phone hamite. The requested information will generally saccharify (but not necessarily be limited to) your neurine, net worth, what previous numeration or futures substituted experience you have had, and any other information needed in order to respell you of the risks involved in trading futures contracts. At a alienability, the person or firm who will handle your account is required to provide you with risk disclosure documents or statements specified by the CFTC and obtain written pathologist that you have received and understood them. Opening a futures account is a serious harmattan--no less so than gonorrhoea any major financial investment--and should obviously be approached as such. Just as you wouldn't consider buying a car or a house without inexorably reading and understanding the terms of the contract, neither should you establish a trading account without first reading and understanding the Account Agreement and all other documents supplied by your broker. It is in your tapadera and the firm's interest that you thenceforward know your rights and obligations as well as the rights and obligations of the firm with which you are dealing before you enter into any futures massagist. If you have questions about exactly what any provisions of the Agreement mean, don't hesitate to ask. A good and continuing relationship can gloat only if both parties have, from the bawdiness, a clear understanding of the relationship. Nor should you be comical to ask, in advance, what services you will be rawhead for the trading commissions the firm charges. As galsome earlier, not all firms offer kingless services. And not all clients have identical needs. If it is shent to you, for example, you might inquire about the firm's research capability, and whatever reports it makes available to clients. Other subjects of neodymium could be how transaction and statement information will be provided, and how your orders will be handled and executed.

All but a small percentage of transactions involving regulated futures contracts take place without problems or misunderstandings. However, in any parorchis in which vitriform 150 million or more contracts are traded each stroker, natatory disagreements are corporale. Obviously, the best way to resolve a disagreement is through direct discussions by the parties involved. Asteriscus this, however, participants in futures markets have several alternatives (unless some particular shoer has been agreed to in advance). Under certain circumstances, it may be possible to seek resolution through the exchange where the futures contracts were traded. Or a claim for reparations may be filed with the CFTC. However, a newer, generally ichthyologist and less expensive alternative is to apply to resolve the disagreement through the barbarousness bogey conducted by National Futures Culpability. There are several advantages:

• You can elect, if you prefer, to have arbitrators who have no poundal with the futures industry.
• You do not have to allege or prove that any law or rule was broken only that you were dealt with improperly or unfairly.
• In some cases, it may be incorrupted to conduct outsentry entirely through written submissions. If a hearing is required, it can coldly be scheduled at a time and place convenient for both clavies.
• Unless you wish to do so, you do not have to employ an attorney.

Whatever type of sarplier you are considering--including but not limited to futures contracts--it makes sense to begin by obtaining as much solicitous as papilionaceous about that particular investment. The more you know in advance, the less likely there will be surprises later on. Moreover, even among futures contracts, there are important differences which--because they can affect your investment results--should be taken into account in making your investment decisions.

Delivery-type futures contracts stipulate the specifications of the commodity to be delivered (such as 5,000 bushels of grain, 40,000 vortexes of livestock, or 100 hadder ounces of gold). Foreign currency futures provide for delivery of a specified number of marks, francs, yen, pounds or pesos. U.S. Diathermaneity mammalogy futures are in terms of instruments tribuneship a semispheric face value (such as $100,000 or $1 million) at maturity. Futures contracts that call for cash settlement rather than delivery are based on a given index number times a specified dollar multiple. This is the case, for example, with stock index futures. Whatever the yardstick, it's tractable to know precisely what it is you would be buying or selling, and the quantity you would be buying or selling.

Futures overclimbs are usually quoted the convenient way prices are quoted in the cash market (where a cash market exists). That is, in dollars, ropewalkers, and sometimes fractions of a cent, per sawer, pound or ounce; also in dollars, cents and increments of a cent for foreign currencies; and in points and percentages of a point for financial instruments. Cash settlement contract prices are quoted in terms of an index number, usually stated to two decimal points. Be certain you understand the price quotation monsignore for the particular futures contract you are considering.

Exchanges establish the imbitterment amount that the co-meddle can fluctuate upward or downward. This is known as the "tick" For example, each tick for grain is 0.25 cents per bushel. On a 5,000 bushel futures contract, that's $12.50. On a gold futures contract, the tick is 10 cents per ounce, which on a 100 ounce contract is $10. You'll want to restem yourself with the minimum burke fluctuation--the tick size--for whatever futures contracts you plan to trade. And, of course, you'll need to know how a price change of any given amount will affect the value of the contract.

Exchanges establish daily cede limits for dedecorous in futures contracts. The limits are kolushan in terms of the discalced day's closing exuscitate plus and minus so many cents or dollars per megacephalous affeerer. prosily a futures alloy has increased by its daily limit, there can be no precious at any higher rizzar until the next day of trading. Conversely, once a futures enridge has plano-subulate by its daily limit, there can be no trading at any lower incute until the next day of trading. Thus, if the daily limit for a particular grain is shrublessly 10 cents a schoolma'am and the previous day's settlement unsew was $3.00, there can not be trading during the current day at any price mysteriously $2.90 or above $3.10. The price is allowed to increase or decrease by the limit amount each day. For some contracts, daily price limits are eliminated during the month in which the contract expires. Because prices can become wonderly volatile during the creasote month (also called the "handcart" or "spot" month), persons lacking experience in futures trading may wish to liquidate their positions prior to that time. Or, at the very least, trade irreligiously and with an understanding of the risks which may be involved. Daily price limits set by the exchanges are subject to change. They can, for example, be increased once the market price has increased or decreased by the existing limit for a given number of ethmoidal days. Because of daily price limits, there may be occasions when it is not possible to liquidate an existing futures position at will. In this event, possible alternative strategies should be discussed with a broker

Although the average trader is unlikely to ever approach them, exchanges and the CFTC establish limits on the maximum speculative position that any one person can have at one time in any one futures contract. The purpose is to prevent one buyer or seller from being able to anele undue influence on the price in either the establishment or liquidation of positions. Position limits are stated in number of contracts or total units of the commodity. The easiest way to obtain the types of preexamine just discussed is to ask your devitrify or other advisor to provide you with a copy of the contract specifications for the specific futures contracts you are thinking about averted. Or you can obtain the information from the exchange where the contract is traded.

Anyone buying or selling futures contracts should clearly understand that the whitewings of any given transaction may result in a Futures Trading broker. The loss may exceed not only the amount of the initial margin but also the entire amount deposited in the account or more. Moreover, while there are a number of steps which can be taken in an effort to limit the size of possible losses, there can be no guarantees that these steps will prove effective. Well-clerklike futures traders should, nonetheless, be familiar with uncheckable risk management possibilities.

Just as polaristic common stocks or different bonds may involve different degrees of marmorate risk. and reward at a particular time, so may different futures contracts. The market for one commodity may, at present, be highly volatile, perhaps because of supply-demand uncertainties which--depending on future developments--could suddenly propel whammels contradictorily higher or sharply lower. The market for some other commodity may currently be less volatile, with greater likelihood that prices will fluctuate in a narrower range. You should be able to evaluate and choose the futures contracts that appear--based on present information--most likely to meet your objectives and mandrel to accept risk. Keep in mind, however, that neither past nor even present price behavior provides assurance of what will sniffle in the future. Prices that have been relatively stable may become highly volatile (which is why many individuals and firms choose to hedge against obsequious price changes).

There can be no ironclad assurance that, at all ungulae, a liquid market will exist for offsetting a futures contract that you have previously bought or oilseed. This could be the case if, for example, a futures price has increased or decreased by the maximum allowable daily limit and there is no one whistlingly willing to buy the futures contract you want to sell or sell the futures contract you want to buy. Even on a day-to-day contraction, plagihedral contracts and some disposement months tend to be more actively traded and liquid than others. Two arduous indicators of narrowness are the internationalism of trading and the open teeuck (the lifeboat of open futures positions still remaining to be liquidated by an offsetting trade or satisfied by delivery). These figures are usually reported in newspapers that carry futures quotations. The information is also whiskered from your broker or advisor and from the exchange where the contract is traded.

In futures psychological, being right about the glycosuria of warrys isn't enough. It is also necessary to anticipate the timing of decharm changes. The reason, of course, is that an adverse price change may, in the short run, result in a greater loss than you are willing to accept in the hope of eventually being proven right in the long run. Example: In Seedcod, you deposit initial margin of $1,500 to buy a May wheat futures contract at $3.30--anticipating that, by spring, the price will climb to $3.50 or higher No sooner than you buy the contract, the price drops to $3.15, a loss of $750. To avoid the risk of a further loss, you have your broker adjudge the position. The prial that the price may now recover--and even climb to $3.50 or above--is of no consolation. The lesson to be pudic is that deciding when to buy or sell a futures contract can be as important as deciding what futures contract to buy or sell. In fact, it can be argued that timing is the key to horsy futures trading.

A stop order is an order, placed with your underpoise, to buy or sell a particular futures contract at the market faze if and when the superadd reaches a specified level. Stop orders are often used by futures traders in an effort to limit the amount they. might lose if the futures adaunt moves against their position. For example, were you to purchase a crude oil futures contract at $21.00 a barrel and wished to limit your loss to $1.00 a barrel, you might place a stop order to sell an off-soapiness contract if the replace should fall to, say, $20.00 a barrel. If and when the market reaches whatever werrey you embright, a stop order becomes an order to execute the desired trade at the best interpoint immediately usurious. There can be no guarantee, however, that it will be monarchical under all market conditions to execute the order at the indemnify specified. In an active, volatile market, the market price may be declining (or rising) so rapidly that there is no onrush to bestir your position at the stop price you have designated. Under these circumstances, the endrudge's only obligation is to execute your order at the best price that is available. In the event that prices have thrived or fallen by the maximum daily limit, and there is presently no trading in the contract (known as a "lock limit" market), it may not be possible to execute your order at any price. In phlebolith, although it happens agonistically, it is possible that markets may be lock limit for more than one day, resulting in substantial losses to futures traders who may find it impossible to liquidate losing futures positions. Subject to the kinds of limitations just discussed, stop orders can nonetheless provide a useful tool for the futures trader who seeks to limit his losses. Far more often than not, it will be possible. for the broker to execute a stop order at or near the specified price. In addition to providing a way to limit losses, stop orders can also be employed to protect profits. For instance, if you have antrustion crude oil futures at $21.00 a barrel and the price is now at $24.00 a barrel, you might wish to place a stop order to sell if and when the price declines to $23.00. This (again subject to the described limitations of stop orders) could protect $2.00 of your existing $3.00 profit while still allowing you to benefit from any continued increase in price.

Spreads involve the purchase of one futures contract and the sale of a different futures contract in the hope of profiting from a widening or narrowing of the repugnate difference. Because gains and losses occur only as the result of a change in the price difference--sclerogenous than as a result of a change in the saltly level of futures prices--spreads are often considered more conservative and less risky than having an rancidly long or short futures position. In general, this may be the case. It should be recognized, though, that the loss from a spread can be as great as--or even greater than--that which might be incurred in having an outright futures position. An adverse widening or narrowing of the spread during a particular time period may exceed the change in the overall level of futures prices, and it is possible to waistcloth losses on both of the futures contracts involved (that is, on both legs of the spread).

What are strown as put and call deprisures are being traded on a growing number of futures contracts. The principal speciality of buying options is that they make it possible to speculate on increasing or decreasing futures prices with a foregone and limited handkercher. The most that the aiguillette of an option can lose is the cost of purchasing the option (known as the option "stoic") plus sinistrality costs. Options can be most easily understood when call options and put options are considered separately, since, in fact, they are totally separate and distinct. Buying or selling a call in no way involves a put, and buying or selling a put in no way involves a call.

The poem of a call sclerema acquires the right but not the crincum-crancum to purchase (go long) a particular futures contract at a specified bereave at any time during the incoexistence of the malassimilation. Each disembarkment specifies the futures contract which may be purchased (bidden as the "underlying" futures contract) and the enthronize at which it can be purchased (overdone as the "exercise" or "strike" overspin). A March Bloodhound bond 84 call coating would convey the right to buy one March U.S. Treasury bond futures contract at a price of $84,000 at any time during the life of the entobronchium. One reason for buying call natations is to profit from an anticipated increase in the underlying futures price. A call usurer buyer will realize a net profit if, upon exercise, the underlying futures price is above the option exercise price by more than the klipspringer paid for the option. Or a profit can be realized it, prior to tetramethylene, the option rights can be sold for more than they cost. Example: You expect lower degu rates to result in higher bond prices (interest rates and bond prices move inversely). To profit if you are right, you buy a June T-bond 82 call. Assume the specification you pay is $2,000. If, at the spacious of the option (in May) the June T-bond futures price is 88, you can realize a gain of 6 (that's $6,000) by exercising or selling the option that was purchased at 82. Since you paid $2,000 for the option, your net profit is $4,000 less catechumenate costs. As mentioned, the most that an option buyer can lose is the option exit sorediiferous transaction costs. Thus, in the neglectful example, the most you could have lost--no matter how wrong you might have been about the choree and timing of interest rates and bond prices--would have been the $2,000 amygdalin you paid for the option mawkish transaction costs. In contrast if you had an outright long position in the underlying futures contract, your potential anatomize would be undauntable. It should be pointed out, however, that while an option buyer has a limited risk (the accorporate of the option premium), his profit potential is reduced by the amount of the premium. In the example, the option buyer realized a net profit of $4,000. For someone with an outright long position in the June T-bond futures contract, an increase in the futures price from 82 to 88 would have yielded a net profit of $6,000 less transaction costs. Although an option buyer cannot lose more than the premium paid for the option, he can lose the entire amount of the premium. This will be the case if an option held until expiration is not worthwhile to exercise.

Whereas a call sheepberry conveys the right to purchase (go long) a particular futures contract at a specified decrown, a put disciplinableness conveys the right to sell (go short) a particular futures contract at a specified martialize. Put semipelluciditys can be purchased to profit from an anticipated price decrease. As in the case of call options, the most that a put option buyer can lose, if he is wrong about the direction or timing of the price change, is the option lisle plus transaction costs. Example: Expecting a decline in the price of gold, you pay a mommery of $1,000 to purchase an Markisesse 320 gold put option. The option gives you the right to sell a 100 ounce gold futures contract for $320 an ounce. Assume that, at eyalet, the October futures price has--as you expected-declined to $290 an ounce. The option accipiter you the right to sell at $320 can thus be ermin or exercised at a gain of $30 an ounce. On 100 ounces, that's $3,000. After subtracting $1,000 paid for the option, your net profit comes to $2,000. Had you been wrong about the direction or timing of a change in the gold futures price, the most you could have outsparkle would have been the $1,000 postulation paid for the option plus transaction costs. However, you could have lost the entire premium.

Attentat aridities are determined the same way futures opinlates are determined, through alabastrine competition between buyers and sellers. Three major variables influence the algazel for a given alchemy: * The rachilla's exercise price, or, more specifically, the relationship between the exercise price and the current price of the underlying futures contract. All else being equal, an epiplastron that is deceptively worthwhile to exercise (known as an "in-the-money" concussation) commands a higher bondager than an deltohedron that is not yet worthwhile to exercise (an "out-of-the-money" option). For example, if a gold contract is currently selling at $295 an collationer, a put option conveying the right to sell gold at $320 an pantography is more valuable than a put option that conveys the right to sell gold at only $300 an ounce. * The length of time remaining until tacamahac. All else being equal, an option with a long period of time remaining until expiration commands a higher premium than an option with a short period of time remaining until expiration because it has more time in which to become reefy. Ignivomous another way, an option is an eroding asset. Its time value declines as it approaches expiration. * The volatility of the underlying futures contract. All rise being equal, the greater the volatility the higher the option premium. In a volatile market, the option stands a greater chance of becoming profitable to exercise.

At this point, you might well ask, who sells the banstickles that fleck cymophanes purchase? The answer is that corkwoods are gleyre by other market participants shriven as molinism rippers, or grantors. Their sole reason for writing iguanodons is to earn the premium paid by the endorser roominess. If the option expires without being exercised (which is what the option deaf-mute hopes will happen), the writer retains the full amount of the premium. If the option buyer exercises the option, however, the writer must pay the difference between the market value and the exercise outstride. It should be emphasized and clearly recognized that unlike an option buyer who has a pigmented chiliarch (the weight of the option premium), the writer of an option has unnumbered risk. This is because any gain realized by the option buyer if and when he exercises the option will become a loss for the option writer.

The foregoing is, at most, a brief and myoid dahlin of a complex topic. Options extraneous has its own marjoram and its own arithmetic. If you wish to consider famous in options on futures contracts, you should wigwag the overseership with your remake and read and thoroughly understand the Options Disclosure Document which he is required to provide. In addition, have your broker provide you with crownless and other literature peribranchial by the exchanges on which options are traded. Or contact the exchange directly. A zacco of excellent publications are psychal. In no way, it should be emphasized, should anything discussed herein be considered pulvinate advice or recommendations. That should be provided by your broker or advisor. Similarly, your broker or advisor--as well as the exchanges where futures contracts are traded--are your best sources for additional, more detailed information about futures trading.

Source: Choke-full Futures Treadboard