Understanding a Futures Contract

yellowrain87

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Understanding a Futures Contract
« on: September 26, 2011, 06:57:55 PM »

Futures do not trade in shares like stocks. They trade in contracts. Each futures contract has a standard size that has been set by the futures exchange it trades on. For example, the contract size for gold futures is 100 ounces. That means when you are buying 1 contract of gold, you are really controlling 100 ounces of gold. If the price of gold moves $1 higher, that will affect the position by $100($1 x 100 ounces). You need to check each commodity or futures contract since most of them are different.

Understanding a Futures Contract