Getting Started in Futures

Getting Started in Futures explains in simple, easy-to-understand terms everything you need to know to start trading futures successfully. You’ll learn how to forecast prices, how hedging works, and how to take advantage of new electronic trading opportunities. The updated Fifth Edition includes discussions on the increasingly important role of futures markets in foreign currencies, equity indexes, interest rates, and proper money management. You’ll also find a complete chapter on single-stock futures — the newest financial futures market.

If you would like to know how futures markets can help you reduce risk or earn greater profits, you have come to the right place. Futures enable you to:

• Set now the purchase price of a financial instrument that you’ll buy later
• Protect a foreign currency bank balance from changes in the exchange rate
• Reduce the market exposure of a single-stock or a large stock portfolio
• Benefit from a favorable change in interest rates without owning the cash instruments
• Protect an inventory of an actual commodity against a decline in its cash price
• Make a bet on the price trend in any traded commodity, from corn to the Canadian dollar

This is the fifth edition of Getting Started in Futures, and a lot of the information is new. But our goals have not changed. Our first goal is help you understand how futures markets work. Our second goal is to show you how you can use these fast-moving marketplaces to your own personal economic advantage.