Gary Poster, with essential assists from Galyn Norwood, Phiroon Phihakendr, Jose Quijada, Pavandeep Kalra. What futures are and why you might want to invest in them.
Futures come in many varieties.
Some examples are contracts hinged to the future performance of currencies, stocks, bonds or other assets. Insofar as a futures contract's value is contingent on the performance of another asset, these types of futures technically are a form of derivative. These can get extremely complicated. Others are tied to foreign currencies, interest rates and precious metals. The most traditional variety of futures is tied to commodities.