What Do you Need to Trade Futures?

Futures are just one of many different financial products that people can use to speculate on the markets, whether they’re into forex, stocks and shares, or commodities. It used to be the case that they were reserved for those who had a large amount of starting capital and vast experience in financial trading. Now however, they’re open to many people; find out here what you need to get started.

Money

You no longer need a vast amount of starting capital to be able to make money on the financial markets, but you do need some form of investment pot. Many products benefit from what is called leverage – the ability to scale up profits and losses – but you still need money to play with. This is because you can lose money as well as make it, so a broker will generally want to see that you can afford to lose as much as you could win. This brings us to the next point.

Broker

Your broker is the company that will facilitate all of your futures trades. They will give you an account from which you can work, and a platform, which is a computer program that shows you the markets and lets you operate. Not all brokers are equal; some have better service than others, and offer different products. The only way to work out which ones are better is to do a little bit of research – most brokers will have a page where they summarize what it is they offer and why you should choose them. Choose carefully, as it may have an impact on your overall experience, and potentially your profits, or indeed losses.

Knowledge

This is absolutely the most important thing that you’ll need if you decide that trading futures is going to be for you. Financial speculation is not a guessing game; traders do not gamble on the price of financial assets, they make educated predictions. Using price charts, historical trends, complex calculations and a host of other signals, the trader will look to make an informed decision. If you’re going to be successful, and critically, turn a profit rather than a loss, then you need to be armed with all of the information that you can get your hands on. You should spend plenty of time researching fundamental and technical analysis before you even think of putting a penny into futures.