Types of Futures

There are two main types of futures trading contracts:

• Futures contracts which are traded for physical delivery, known as commodities and include sugar, corn and cocoa.
• Futures contracts which end with a cash settlement, known as financial instruments. They can include underlying assets in equities, bonds and indices. 

Futures based on equities allow you to gain exposure to specific shares, in particular to the most traded European blue chips. Stock market indices futures enable you to take positions in European or international stock markets with leverage. An example: promoted by NYSE Liffe, NYSE Euronext’s international derivatives market, FTSE 100 Index Futures allow you to gain exposure to the FTSE 100 Index which tracks the performance of the UK top 100 blue chip companies.