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The spot market sells things for immediate, or "on the spot," delivery.

The futures market lets you arrange to set the price of something now that you'll pay for and get later.

Commodities users like the futures market because it lets them predict costs. If you make twinkles it's easier to calculate the price of them a year out if you know what sugar will cost a year out. The risk is sugar will be cheaper a year from now than your futures contract has it priced at; that's mitigated by the risk sugar will be really high a year from now and a box of twinkles that sells for $2.99 will have $2.98 worth of sugar in it if you didn't have a futures contract outstanding.

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10y ago
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10y ago

Futures contracts are agreements to purchase at a specific date in the future, a specific amount of a specific good for a specific amount of money.

A single-stock futures contract is just one with a specific company's stock underlying it.

My feeling on these is simple: don't buy futures contracts on securities! If the thing goes the wrong way you're still on the hook for it. All derivatives written against securities should be options contracts; if those stay out of the money you just let them expire worthless and lose nothing more than your premium.

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Q: What are the difference between spot and futures market?
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A commodity market is in contango if the spot price is lower than the futures price. A contango position is the futures position you hold with a price higher than spot price.


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Spot market is also known as "cash market" where the commodities are sell on the current price or the spot rate and deliver immediately, where as in case of forward market, market dealing with commodities for future delivery at prices agreed upon today (date of making the contract).


What has the author Joseph M Monahan written?

Joseph M. Monahan has written: 'The Foreign Exchange Market: Spot, Forward, Futures, and Options'


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The phrase "cash for settlement" refers to sellers who do not wish to take actual possession of a commodity. It is a more convenient method of transacting futures and options contacts. E.g. if you purchased cotton futures that are cash settled, instead of taking possession of the actual cotton, it pays the difference between the spot price of the cotton and the futures price.


Futures and spot prices are parallel?

A futures contract is a exchange traded device where someone can speculate on or hedge price risk regarding a specific commodity, bond market or stock index asset. The contract is a binding agreement of delivery of an asset at a predetermined time in the future. At first futures prices vs. the current price of the underlying asset they represent are not the same due to the time value of future money, market forecast opinion, news, etc. But as the futures contract comes to it's time conclusion it's price starts to closely track the spot or actual cash market price of the asset. In the end they are both at parity as the futures contract ends at the delivery date and thus is then equal to the then current cash market price of the underlying asset.


What are some characteristics of the foreign exchange spot markets?

The spot market or cash market is a public financial market in which financial instruments or commodities are traded for immediate delivery. It contrasts with a futures market, in which delivery is due at a later date. In spot market, settlement happens in t+2 working days, i.e., delivery of cash and commodity must be done after two working days of the trade date. A spot market can be:an organized market;an exchange; orover-the-counter (OTC)Spot markets can operate wherever the infrastructure exists to conduct the transaction


A commodity futures market exists within the boarder commodities market for which reasons?

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