Indices DJIA S&P 500 DAX 30 Nasdaq 100 Nasdaq Comp Nikkei 225 FTSE 100 SMI DJ Stoxx 50 CAC 40 Hang Seng Kospi Nyse Comp AMEX   -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -   10911 1137.4 5732.4 2127.7 2438.1 8981.9 5072.1 4984.1 2161.9 5732.4 19614.7 1817.4 7017.6 2174.7 Commodites Light Crude Oil Brent Crude Copper Gold Pallad Platinum Silver Dow Diamonds QQQQ   -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -     -   83.08 106.28 1.17 1758.7 730.5 1782 38.21 109.16 55.42 Last update: 11-08-2011 14:29:00 (GMT - Live)

Delivery What is a Futures Contract? Leverage: Small movements can create big profits! Margins Month Codes Buying (Going Long) to Profit from an Expected Price Increase Selling (Going Short) to Profit from an Expected Price Decrease About the National Futures Association (NFA) Complete history of the Futures Contract? Contract Specifications: mini-sized Dow ($5) CBOT Contract Specifications: DJIA Futures ($10 Multiplier) CBOT Contract Specifications: Corn CBOT TOP 4 U.S. FUTURES EXCHANGES TOP 10 GLOBAL FUTURES CONTRACTS TOP 10 U.S. FUTURES CONTRACTS TOP 10 CME FUTURES CONTRACTS RANKED BY VOLUME Delivery CME Eurodollar Futures CME Eurodollar Futures CME LIBOR Futures Only about 3% of all futures contracts actually result in physical delivery or cash settlement of the commodity. The other 97% are simply offset. That means that the majority of participants close out their positions prior to the contract’s delivery date (sellers buy back the futures they sold, and buyers sell back the futures they bought). For some futures contracts, such as stock index futures, there is no physical delivery. Rather, positions are closed out through cash settlement. On the day following the final trading day, open contract positions are settled in cash with no deliveries of the securities. The full value of the contract is not transferred to your performance bond account. Instead there is a final "marking-to-the-market" of the contract position to the actual index based upon the opening values of the stocks, with the final gain or loss applied to the performance bond accounts. With this cash delivery feature, liquidity is ensured to the last day of trading of the contract. Why would the remaining 3% of traders make or take delivery? They would do this primarily for two reasons: » The buyer or seller actually has need for the product to be bought or sold. Farmers and homebuilders are examples. » The locked-in futures price is better than what they could get elsewhere in the marketplace. Source: