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6
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2answers
115 views

Why trade futures if you have options

At this link:http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/options-vs-futures.asp they explain the difference between futures and options. It seems futures is an obligation while options is an 'right ...
4
votes
2answers
85 views

What do these numbers mean? (futures)

The S&P closed at 1588.85 on April 12th. On www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/futures/ For stock futures, it gives the following data: > Index Future | Future Date | Last ...
3
votes
1answer
44 views

10-Year Treasury Future Quotes

The CBOE lists the current price for a June 2013 10-Year Treasury future as 132'155. The contract specifications state that the price quote is Points ($1,000) and halves of 1/32 of a point. Does ...
0
votes
0answers
42 views

How is the price of VXX determined?

I'm trying to understand how VXX works (the prospectus on Barclay's Ipath). It says that it has a rolling position in futures (1 month and 2 month). Does that mean that it buys and sells contracts ...
0
votes
1answer
36 views

Futures initial margin and maintenance margin

I just a had a quick question about margin in a Futures contract. Suppose, that I have a Futures contract that requires an initial margin of $1000 and a maintenance margin of $500. Suppose that after ...
1
vote
0answers
97 views

Calculating the profit earned from a leveraged futures contract

How do we calculate the profit/loss of Futures contract? For example, If I had a Futures contract that had $10 000 as the underlying, it had $1000 margin and the Futures contract itself was worth $3. ...
1
vote
0answers
33 views

Different returns relating to section 1256 carryback for federal and state

we had a large gain in 2010 in futures (section 1256) and then a large loss in 2011 (large but a lot less than the gain in 2010). Since section 1256 allows amending prior returns and carrying back the ...
0
votes
1answer
123 views

Evidence for/against negative correlation between commodity futures, stocks

I've heard that stocks and futures are negatively correlated over the medium term - e.g. that if stocks experience a brief rise, futures tend to fall, and vice versa, but they move together in the ...
2
votes
1answer
70 views

How does investing in commodities/futures vary from stocks?

I understand the basic concept behind investing in a company via stock purchases: you get some minuscule percentage of the company, and get to benefit from that ownership. Investing in commodities ...
7
votes
1answer
69 views

FTSE exposure in US Exchanges

Is there a FTSE 100 index futures contract that trades on the US exchanges? Thanks I think there is an ETF but I am looking for futures, mainly for charting purposes.
2
votes
2answers
94 views

Hedging against rising oil and gas prices for private households?

Inspired by this article Hedging Against Rising Heating Oil Prices using Heating Oil Futures, I wonder whether hedging against rising oil and gas prices makes sense for private households, too? If so, ...
0
votes
2answers
99 views

Futures price of Eurodollar futures

From Wikipedia: The Eurodollar futures contract refers to the financial futures contract based upon these deposits, traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). ... CME Eurodollar ...
5
votes
3answers
185 views

Do futures have premium in the price, just as options do?

Looking at Wikipedia's the pricing of futures, I wonder if entering into a futures contract requires one to pay premium just as entering into an option contract? In other words, is the premium of a ...
1
vote
3answers
320 views

Search index futures in Yahoo Finance or Google Finance

I was wondering if index futures and options information are available in Yahoo/Google Finance. Say futures/options for Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1
vote
2answers
97 views

How do I interpret the price of Eurodollar futures?

For example, in this image, what does 99.4600 mean? I know the current EURUSD rate is about 1.38, so does it mean 99.4600*1.38 on Dec 2011? Any ideas?
1
vote
2answers
72 views

Trading when you work for a market participant

I work in the IT department at a Futures FCM. While I'm aware that there are insider trading rules with respect to our company stock, I'm still not clear on what it means for my own participation in ...
3
votes
1answer
72 views

How prevalent are futures in the agricultural industry?

I realize that many agricultural companies sell their crops or livestock via futures contracts to manage the risks inherent to their industry. It seems to me that this kind of activity would be ...
4
votes
2answers
129 views

How far into the future is a stock future? How do stock futures work?

I have been looking at the markets recently and most of the time, I see similar articles on how the market is going to do depending on how futures did. I am not that familiar with futures, but how ...
3
votes
3answers
89 views

How do you go about buying currency futures for foreign currencies?

I was interested in buying currency futures for some foreign currencies. How do you go about getting these? I am looking for 6 to 12 month futures.
5
votes
4answers
3k views

How much would it cost me to buy one gold futures contract on Comex?

I am looking at gold futures prices: http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/metals/precious/gold.html I cannot figure out how much one futures contract of gold would cost me to buy if I were to buy it from ...
4
votes
2answers
103 views

Can the shorting of S&P futures negatively affect the underlying index and constituent stocks?

I hear people on financial shows talk all the time about index futures like SPY and QQQQ affecting the actual index. Can shorting these futures (in huge quantities obviously) cause the underlying ...
3
votes
4answers
100 views

Are buying and selling futures based on objective data?

I was thinking the other day that buying or selling futures is like gambling. It's based on no objective data and once you start pouring your money into it you can lose a lot... Are buying and ...
6
votes
3answers
121 views

Does a high demand for long commodities Futures push up the underlying spot price?

Let's take a commodity as an example - oil. Suppose there is suddenly a high demand for a 30-day oil futures contract. Will that push up the spot price on oil? I would guess that this would affect ...
6
votes
2answers
153 views

What are futures and how are they different from options?

As a form of investment there are contracts to buy commodities at a specific time in the future or at a specific price. How is this different from an option to buy a share?