Glencore can make use of the characteristics of commodity price differences in different regions or different periods to carry out cross-regional arbitrage, cross-commodity arbitrage and cross-time arbitrage. Futures are mainly not commodities, but standardized tradable contracts with cotton, soybeans, oil and other popular products and financial assets such as stocks and bonds as the target.

A contract or agreement to buy or sell futures is called a futures contract. The place where futures are bought and sold is called the futures market. Investors can invest or speculate in futures.