A futures contract is an agreement in which the buyer agrees to receive assets at a specific price after a specified time, and the seller agrees to deliver assets at a specific price after a specified time. The price that both parties agree to use in future transactions is called futures price. The designated date on which both parties must conduct transactions in the future is called settlement date or delivery date. The assets that both parties agree to exchange are called "targets". If an investor obtains a position in the market by buying a futures contract (that is, agreeing to buy it at a future date), it is called a long position or a futures long position. On the contrary, if the position obtained by investors is to sell futures contracts (that is, to assume the contractual responsibility for future sales), it is called short positions or short futures.
Futures contract is a standardized contract designed by the exchange and approved by the national regulatory agency. The holders of futures contracts can fulfill or cancel their contractual obligations through the settlement of spot or hedging transactions.
A futures contract refers to a standardized contract made by a futures exchange and agreed to deliver a certain quantity and quality of goods at a specific time and place in the future. It is the object of futures trading, and the participants in futures trading transfer the price risk and obtain the risk income by buying and selling futures contracts on the futures exchange. Futures contracts are developed on the basis of spot contracts and spot forward contracts, but their most essential difference lies in the standardization of futures contract terms. Futures contracts traded in the futures market are standardized in the quantity, quality grade, delivery grade, premium standard of substitutes, delivery place and delivery month, which makes futures contracts universal. In the futures contract, only the futures price is the only variable, which is generated by public bidding in the transaction.