Trading The Futures Market Facts
Mar0
Contracts in the futures market are between a buyer and seller. The contract states that the seller must provide the buyer a very specific quantity of a certain item, such as grain, oil etc, for a price agreed today, but at a date in the future.
It is important not to get confused about what the word future refers to. Futures traders are not day trading futures prices, we are trading today’s prices, but the settlement is taking place in the future. So we buy if we think prices will increase and sell if we think prices will drop.
If I buy (or sell) a futures contract today, I don’t have to hold it until the contract expires, I can simply choose to sell it (or buy it) in the market at the prevailing price. Futures contracts are bought and sold in the controlled environment of a futures exchange, such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in the U.S. and the London International Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) in the U.K.
Futures were originally developed to help offset the risks and uncertainties experienced by farmers and merchants due to the varying supply and demand for produce. Take for example a coffee plantation farmer. The price that he will receive for his bean crop will vary according to the vagaries of supply and demand. In a year when supplies are limited and demand is high, prices will be high. In a year when demand falls and the supply is plentiful, the price will fall.
The use of futures trading 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 type 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.
The CBOT was started about 1848 for the benefit of the farmers and merchants. The exchange was to regulate both the quality and quantity of the actual crop that was being traded. Today the CBOT offers many contracts on items like wheat, silver, corn, bonds and soybeans.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was created in 1919 and has managed a futures market in such things as pork bellies, live cattle and the SP500 index.
In London the big financial futures exchange is the London International Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). Here financial instruments such as the FTSE100, the GILT and Short Sterling are traded, the exchange is relativily new and opened around 1982.
EUREX started life as the DTB, the German futures exchange. The DTB has always been an electronic exchange and started around 1990, when electronic exchanges were still considered to be inferior to the open outcry system.
The German Bund was a heavily traded financial contract and one of the biggest markets on the LIFFE.
Many futures markets have very high volumes and hence very good liquidity, these are attractive markets for traders. The high leverage means that profits can be made very fast when the market moves, however money can also be lost very fast. If you want to learn to trade futures, or are even thinking of trading futures make sure that you learn as much as you can before using real money.
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What are commodity options?
Mar0
Commodity options are capable of offering the options holder the right to buy and sell commodities at the specified rates within a specific time. The commodity options are offered in several over-the-counter markets and exchanges. Helping people to ensure against the price volatility is the main function of these options.
There are two main varieties of commodity options. These are called call and put options. Over-the-counter markets offer different varieties of them. They can be defined as the contracts that allow the buyers an option, the right not an obligation for buying and selling at specific rate with the specified date. The most important feature of these options is that they do not obligate either of the parties. This can be called as the most important difference between a futures contract and an options contract.
Futures contracts are known to obligate both parties to abide by the terms of the contract. The options may be written for the underlying assets including financial indexes and financial instruments. However, if the underlying assets are commodities like precious metals, grain, oil and other agricultural products, the options will be called commodity options.
The main factor that differentiates the options is the criteria whether they offer the ‘buyer of option’, the right to buy or sell the commodity at rates that are specified before their expiration date. The options that offer a right to buy are known as call options whereas the ones that offer a right to sell are known as put options.
An options contract must specify certain things including the commodity being traded, whether the options are call or put, number of units being traded, the expiration date and the strike price fundamentally. In brief, commodity options are a great help to traders as they offer an insurance against the price volatility.
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Investing In Futures Market or Forex Market
Feb0
Future’s trading and market was founded back in the 19th century by the agriculture markets owners. At that point, farmers started selling contracts to supply agricultural products at a later date. This was done to forecast market wishes and stabilise demand and supply during off seasons. The prevailing commodity market includes way more than rural products.
Now, future’s and commodity are an international market for all kinds of commodities including manufactured products, rural products, and monetary instruments like currencies and treasury bonds. A futures contract states what price will be paid for a product at a stated end date. Rather, it’s the futures contract itself that’s traded as the value of that contract changes daily according the stock market price of the commodity. In each futures contract there’s a customer and a seller. The vendor takes the short position and the purchaser takes the long position. The futures contract cites a purchasing price, a quantity and a finish date. As an example : A farmer agrees to supply one thousand bushels of wheat to a baker at a cost of $5.00 a bushel. If the daily cost of wheat futures falls to $4.00 a bushel, the farmer’s account is credited with $1000 ( $5.00 – $4.00 X one thousand bushels ) and the baker’s account is debited by the same quantity. Futures accounts are settled each trading day. At the end of the contract period, the contract is settled. If the cost of wheat futures is still at $4.00 the farmer will have made $1000 on the futures contract and the baker will have lost an identical quantity. Likewise, the farmer must sell his wheat on the market for $4.00 a bushel, less than what he expected when entering the futures contract, but the profit generated by the futures contract makes up the difference. Investors hope to profit by the daily variations in the commodity market by purchasing long ( from the purchaser ) if they are expecting prices to rise or by purchasing short ( from the vendor ) if they anticipate costs to fall. The currency exchange market has one or two benefits over the commodity market.
The Currency exchange is open twenty-four hours per day, five days each week. Most futures exchanges are open seven hours a day. This makes foreign exchange more liquid and permits foreign exchange traders to use trading opportunities as they arise instead of waiting for the market to open. Foreign exchange transactions are commission-free. Brokers earn cash by setting a spread the difference between what a currency can be acquired at and what it can be sold at. Against this, traders must pay a commission or brokerage charge for each futures exchange they enter into. This minimizes slippage and increases price certainty.
Brokers in the commodity market frequently quote costs reflecting the last trade not always the cost of your exchange. Debits in futures are generally a possiblility due to stock market opening and slippage.
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Futures Options Contracts
Jan0
I want to go over a common concern with futures options trading. I only recommend and teach selling options if you are covering them by buying options. Sold options that are not covered are called “naked options”. That means that if there is a move against you, and you did not also buy options, there is potential unlimited loss.
If you did cover your sold position by buying a future option as protection, you are no longer naked. Now even if a sold option is covered some still feel nervous if an option they sold is exercised into a futures contract. The buyer of an option has the right at any time to exercise their option. Let’s assume you sold a call option to someone. They exercise the option and now they are long a futures. That means you are short the futures. Should you be concerned?
Two things to consider:
You have unlimited loss potential whether you are selling a futures option or long or short a futures contract. So the fact that someone exercises an option should not worry you more. Either way, there is unlimited loss potential. But you always want to cover the position. So either way, now that it is covered, you do not have unlimited loss potential.
The second thing is that you should be happy if the seller exercises it if there is still time value left. When they do this, they are giving up on some of the time value. So if there is $100 time value left and the buyer exercises the option, he gives up that time value when he gets the futures. So either way, don't worry if you are protected.
If you only sell uncovered or naked options because you do not want to spend the money to buy options as protection, you might want to re think your strategy. Find cheap options to cover your sold options instead of being naked.
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Options Trading For the Bold and Speculative Investor
Jan0
Looking for a versatile, speculative and highly opportunistic source of investment? Why not indulge in some options trading?
The basis of options lies in an underlying asset which is the subject of sale or purchase. This object can be anything ranging from a security of some sort, a piece of property or even a futures contract. There are primarily two persons involved in the contract namely the buyer and the seller. The seller charges a premium for granting the buyer the ‘option’. Now it is in the hands of the buyer to exercise the right of sale of the underlying asset which is called a ‘put option’ whereas if he chooses to buy the asset, then it is known as the ‘call option’. Thus the seller has to buy or sell the asset at the agreed price which is called the ’strike price’. At times the buyer retains the asset until it’s time period expires
The amount of leverage provided by option trading is immense. Very little investment can lead to large number of underlying stocks. But only the sophisticated or experienced investor need venture into this area for fear of possible large losses. In fact options are an extension of your knowledge or opinion in stocks. Thus a good analyzer of the stock market would certainly perform well in this field.
The option trader is often in a better position of risk then the stock trader. This is obvious in a case where the price of a particular stock drops and the stock holder suffers a huge loss having paid an amount equal to the face value of the stock, the options trader having invested only a percentage of the face value of the stock say 10% or even lesser will stand to lose only that much.
Options trading also offer the advantage of buying an equal amount of ‘put options’ as the number of shares you own. This is an excellent method of preventing a drop in the value of the shares owned by him and this method can be called ‘Protective Put’.
Keep in mind that not all stocks are available for option trading and those which are not are known as ‘Optionable stocks’.
The best way to start off with this trading is to open an online options trading account and then practice with call options for those stocks which seem to have an increasing value tendency and exercising put options for those stocks which show a receding trend.
Use all knowledge you accumulate through extensive research and direct it to structure risk and reward. Try and generate as much income from them rather than engaging in a speculative game.
Make sure you carry enough capital before you venture into this business. Do not stand to lose by investing your entire savings into options because with the blink of an eye it is possible to lose millions therefore make options an addition to your portfolio and not a sole income generator.
Be adequately prepared for any losses since this is essentially an expected part of the trade.
You can easily lead the markets if you can crack the code for the options trading. To know more about option trading and its benefits, you can visit http://www.optionstradingbusiness.com
Mike Bordon is a renowned SEO professional and author of many articles and e-books. Presently he is working as the editor of spotwriters. You can contact him to get your articles done. Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/options-trading-for-the-bold-and-speculative-investor-1755361.html
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