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Commodities
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Futures
Term category: Derivatives, Advanced
In 10 words or less:  A financial instrument used to hedge or speculate in commodities, indexes, and currencies.

Definition: A financial instrument that gives the person the obligation to buy or sell a certain amount of a commodity at a certain date. When people talk about "investing on corn", this is what they're talking about.

StockJargon Advice: Futures trading is a high-risk, high-reward form of investing. Because your money is leveraged, you have the potential to make many times more than you invest. But you can also lose more than you invest.

Futures trading is called "speculation" because the trader is betting on what direction the commodity or index will go.

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Getting Started in Currency Trading by Michael Archer
Trading Commodities and Financial Futures by George Kleinman
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Beating the Street by Peter Lynch

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