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The Guidelines For Future Trading

By Emma J. Zannini


Futures trading is a technique of speculative trading that allows people to get contracts based on whether they believe the value of a commodity will increase or drop. A commodity could be anything that is bought and sold in large quantities, all the way from steel and corn to foreign currency and oil could be a commodity you can buy and sell. Being an investor, you take out a legal contract depending on whether you think the cost of a commodity rises or perhaps falls. In case you are right, you can cash in and bank income. If you are incorrect, you lose the money you might have risked on the exchange.

Experienced futures traders will show you that it requires a tactical mind and patience to do well in Futures Trading. There are certain issues that you can do to lower the chance of losing your own investment. This does not mean that you will always make money; it just implies that you lower your chances of losses. Here are a few basics of Futures Trading strategies.

1. Going Long

This is one of the Futures Trading strategies which are employed by investors who anticipate the price of a commodity to rise over time in the future. Let's state that you have considered the Futures market and the price of a commodity, oil for example, is presently selling at $100 a barrel. Your research tells you that within the next 6 months, it will be $120. Things go so well for you that 3 months in, you are looking at $20. You may cash in now and make a healthy profit in your investment for every contract you may have purchased.

Think about it for a short while that in three months, oil is selling at $90 a barrel. You still have the option to liquidate the position and cut further cutbacks. Obviously you can hold on with the hope that prices will rise in the next three months, but this is usually considered as risky and is an extremely poor Futures Trading strategy.

2. Going Short

The difference between going long and going short is the series of events. With this Futures Trading approach, you have to sell a Futures contract. You are selling it in the belief that its price will drop. If it does, you will have made a profit by purchasing an offsetting futures contract at the lower price.

Should the cost of the commodity increase in opposition to your expectations, you will have made a loss.

3. Spreads

Although many people focus on buying long and short to produce profits in Futures trade methods, there are more strategies that are known to work perfectly, and spreads is one. This is how it functions:

You purchase one Futures contract within a month

You sell a different Futures contract in another month.

You accomplish this if you are expecting an increase in the purchase price of one Future and a drop in the cost of the other.

These are the Futures Trading strategies that actually work best. You should always be open to brand new Future Trade techniques and ideas about markets as well as their current state. While you don't want to take positions using outside advice or perhaps recommendations, it is good to keep on top of present economical/political conditions that may have an effect on your trading judgements.




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