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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.

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Q: Futures and spot prices are parallel?
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