What you need to know about futures contracts

Futures contract or just futures is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell assets at a predetermined price at a specified date in the future. Underlying asset can be stock market index, currencies or most common commodities - oil. gasoline and gold. Buyer of the future has the obligation to buy the underlying asset when the future contract expires just like the seller has the obligation to provide the asset at the expiration date. Futures that are traded on commodity future exchanges are more standardized and regulated like Chicago Mercantile Exchange or New York Mercantile Exchange. Standardized contract means that for instance, one future oil contract is for 1,000 of oil and one gold contract is for 100 troy ounces of gold. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission regulates the exchanges and require buyers and sellers to be registered.

Futures are used by two types of market participants - hedgers and speculators. Guarantees to buy or sell at a certain price reduces risk. If the price of an commodity, the buyer makes money as he gets commodity at a lover price and vice versa if the price goes down seller makes money because he is selling the commodity at a higher predetermined price. Prices of commodities are volatile and changes often so the contract prices change as well which makes them risky investment. Price of the future is calculated through mathematical model which takes into account multiple factors like storage costs and time of maturity.

Futures can be traded only for profit as long as the trade is executed before expiration date. This is done by retail traders and portfolio managers that are not interested in the underlying asset but make profit on the price fluctuation of commodities and therefore the future contract. Trading futures requires broker and he or she will only require initial margin payment for the contract. If the price fluctuates a lot broker may reacquire from trader to deposit more money to recover the loss. Every time when transaction occurs the price of the contract moves. The minimum price fluctuation that future can make is called tick. Tick movement represents monetary gain or loss. Final profit or loss is realized when the trade is closed.

Comments

OTC stocks more difficult to trade and deposit

Mina Mar Group helps micro-cap companies structure their growth. Micro-capitalized companies are those with less than $50,000,000 in equity, sometimes under $1,000,000. Restructuring involves raising money (both debt and stock), and planning how they will eventually harvest that wealth. If you’re a founder or investor, the secret to harvesting your equity is to possess assets with a developed market for their sale; up until recently, that market was the public market. Now, Over-The-Counter Securities (“OTC Securities”) don’t serve that purpose since, unless you’re a tech unicorn doing an IPO, there are essentially no ways to sell the shares you’ve invested in. OTC securities – how they were deposited five years ago. Brokerages all around the country have tightened compliance over the past five years to the point where no one may deposit share certificates into their brokerage accounts, even if they can prove that they paid for them. Consider the following demand from a secondary ...

All-cash, All-stock offer

An acquisition strategy known as an “all-cash, all-stock offer” requires the buyer to commit to purchasing all of the target company’s outstanding shares for a certain amount in cash. It is also characterized as buying all of a company’s outstanding shares from its shareholders in exchange for payment. All-cash, all-stock offers are typically taken into consideration as a strategy to complete an acquisition. This could be an excellent technique the acquiring corporation might use to make the transaction appear sweet and persuade shareholders who are on the fence to accept the sale by offering a premium above the cost at which the shares are now trading. So if it’s that case, if indeed the company was purchased at a premium, then shareholders of the target company could experience an increase in the value of their shares. Even when we talk about cash deals, a stock value for the target firm is discussed, and that value may be considerably higher than its current market price. Therefore,...

Company Disclosures

When we speak about disclosures and what they represent in financial terms, that actually refers to providing the public with all relevant information about a company on time. So relevant information includes facts, figures, dates, procedures, innovation, etc, which means any information regarding a company that can probably impact an investor’s decision. As a result, it is necessary to comprehend that public company directors and officers are in charge of company disclosures and securing investors with complete and valid information. Access to material info enables investors to make information-based investment decisions, which is vital for efficient market pricing and on which state and federal securities are based. Anytime new stocks are issued to the public, the SEC requisite disclosures of relevant financial and business info to possible investors, with exemptions provided for private placements and small issues. Integrated disclosure structure is the name give...

Mina Mar Group

Search This Blog