Futures contract

Futures contracts are contracts stipulating the purchase or sale of commodities, currencies or securities of a specified quantity, at a specific price and on a predetermined date in the future.

Futures contracts tend to be standardised in terms of quantity, price and maturity periods.

They are written against an exchange clearing house and traded through the clearing house.

Because of their standardisation, futures contracts have a deep secondary market.

See also

• Clearing house
• Exchange
• Fixing instrument
• Forward contract
• Futures
• Margin call
• Open interest
• Secondary market