Beginning to study futures in TOS

Started with farmers, commodity producers. Farmers lock in a price for their goods in advance, offsetting risk.

Hedgers. Airlines use futures to protect against rising costs of fuel. Buy contracts to lock in price.

Speculators provide liquidity for the markets. They keep the market available for the producers or hedgers.

allows for business or individuals to navigate risk & uncertainty. Futures lock in prices; insurance for bullshit in the future. They are devices to mitigate the chaos of the world, to ensure sturdy foundations on which business can build. They offset risk that parties open to embracing it & yield proportionate awards or losses as a result.

Contract sizes stay stagnant. ONE contract of Crude Oil (/CL) represents 1,000 barrels.

SPX contract times 50???

Standardized contract size: 1 contract e-mini S&P 500 futures (/ES?) = $50 * Price of S&P (!)

Current value of 1 /ES contract = $50 * 3825 = $191,000
What are the contract multiplier for other futures? Wheat, corn, etc

What’s the difference between notional value & cost.

• Notional Value: The cash equivalent value to owning the underlying asset, or the contract’s total value.

Margin is typically 3-12% of notional value.

Micro e-mini futures contracts on S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, DJIA, Russell 2000, started in 2019??

They are fraction of size of e-mini futures

e-mini futures were launched in 1999

Micros are 1/10 size of minis

Ticker symbol /MES instead of /ES

TD Ameritrade Futures Data including Contract Multipliers & Trading Hours

MUST type in specific expiration signal in order to trade futures contracts, this is why I was unable to trade before. Must have root symbol, expiration month, & expiration year for the right contracts to pull up. This will be the future of my trading. This is the future.