Spread trading involves following the difference in price between two futures markets. For instance, an example of an intra-commodity spread would be if you simultaneously bought July Corn at 2.25 and sold December Corn at 2.34, you would have entered the spread at 9 cents. Some advantages to spread trading are that traders don't necessarily have to determine market direction because they are only looking at the spread difference. A market can go up or down and a spread can still make money. It is also possible that both legs of the spread can move adversely against the trader and the trader could end up losing twice as much as a net futures position.
Margin requirements are also usually lower with spreads.
However, that does not necessarily mean that a spread always carries lower risk. Risk Disclosure Hypothetical performance results have many inherent limitations, some of which are described below. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown. In fact, there are frequently sharp differences between hypothetical performance results and the actual results subsequently achieved by any particular trading program. One of the limitations of hypothetical performance results is that they are generally prepared with the benefit of hindsight.