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Futures trading – are futures profitable?

If you're considering trading futures, you might be wondering if it's worth your while.

By Marius DeniauPublished 2 years ago 4 min read
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Futures trading – are futures profitable?
Photo by Medienstürmer on Unsplash

Futures trading has become increasingly popular over the years for a good reason – it presents a transparency and a degree of predictability. But how profitable is futures trading? Are there ways to avoid losses? And what about margins – do you need a lot of money to go futures trading?

Trading is based on the nature of market.

It is true that trading on the futures market can be profitable. However, this is not an easy task. The futures market is probably the most complex financial instrument and it requires a lot of patience and discipline to succeed in trading. For beginners it is better to start with stock trading or forex.

Trading is based on the nature of market. If you are planning to buy a product for $100 and sell it for $110, then it does not matter whether you buy it from someone else or make a deal with him directly. In both cases you have to pay $100 for your purchase and earn $10 for selling the product.

In other words, in both cases you will have to spend 100% of your capital (100% risk). If you want to receive more than 100% profit from your trade, then you have to get rid of this risk factor. This can be done by using leverage (margin) or by spreading trades across different financial instruments (spread trading).

The key to successful trading is risk management.

Futures trading – are futures profitable? The key to successful trading is risk management. If you want to make money in the financial markets, you need to be able to manage your losses as well as your profits. If you take a look at the history of futures trading, it becomes apparent that it can be very profitable if you know what you're doing.

However, it's important to remember that there is no such thing as a guaranteed profit. As with all forms of trading, there's always an element of risk involved and you could lose money if things go wrong. Futures contracts can be used for hedging purposes or speculating on price movements in the underlying asset.

The latter is known as directional trading and is the most common form of futures trading. The main advantage of futures contracts is that they enable investors to lock in a price for their purchase or sale before they make the actual transaction. In other words, they give them protection against potential price fluctuations which might occur between now and when they actually buy or sell the asset in question (i.e., when they have completed delivery).

In addition, they allow investors to speculate on whether an asset will rise or fall in value by locking in a future price for them (i.e.

Don’t forget about fundamental analysis.

Futures trading – is it profitable? There are many myths about futures trading and the futures market. One of them is that futures trading is only for professionals. Another myth is that only rich people can trade in futures. The truth is that anyone can trade in futures, but not everyone will be successful at it.

The first thing to recognize is that you need to know what you are doing before you start investing your money in the futures market. There are a lot of risks involved, especially if you don’t know what you are doing or do not have enough experience with this kind of trading.

If you don’t have enough experience then I recommend you not to try trading on your own but instead use a free demo platform like eToro or Avatrade where you can learn how to trade before investing real money into the markets.

Open a demo account.

Futures trading is a very risky investment and should only be used by experienced traders. If you are planning to trade futures, open a demo account first. This will allow you to get the feel of the market and try out your strategies. Before you start trading in real time, it’s important to learn about the different types of futures contracts available, as well as the various ways they can be traded.

When trading futures, you have two main options: You can sell short or buy long. When selling short, you sell a contract that you don’t own — so if it goes down, you make money; if it goes up, you lose money (but only on paper). When buying long, you buy a contract that you don’t own — so if it goes down, you lose money; if it goes up, you make money (but only on paper).

In a nutshell

Trading is all about probabilities and statistics. If you set your trading plan, trade with discipline, have a sound money management strategy and let the market do it's job, you have the highest odds of success. However, by definition, trading is a zero-sum game, which makes it hard to make money in trading when you factor in costs, taxes and fees.

Trading options can be profitable as they allow you to sell at different strike prices.

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About the Creator

Marius Deniau

👋 I'm a Finance nerd and aspiring writer. Fan of the maths, outdoors, and rock music ! See you on Vocal !

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