Futures Basics

More and more investors are moving into exchange-traded funds to track the change in commodities frequently traded on the futures markets. One such ETF, the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), has now grown to contain nearly $50 billion in assets, making it one of the largest ETFs on the market.

Futures hand signals make the futures pit much more efficient in the midst of the chaos in the pits.

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a contract sometime in the future. Futures contracts have been around in tradable markets for hundreds of years and can date back as far as rice grain futures in Japan.

A managed futures account (MFA) is an alternative investment strategy where an investor allows a professional money manager known as a commodity trading advisors (CTA) to invest funds in the global futures markets.