Lets face it, future contracts are extremely risky. One bad trade could wipe your account clean. Like options, futures have great leverage. In the futures market, there are two participants, hedgers and speculators. Hedgers are actually interested in the commodity being traded and want to lock in a price so that they can profit from the changes. A hedger might be a...

There are many things that somebody could invest in. You could invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds,etc.  Some of the best investment vehicles, such as futures and options are the ones that many traders fear and don't really understand. Options are derivatives that derive their value from an underlying asset. This means that the price of an options contract...