Softs is simply a label for a set of commodities, usually including:
Grain trading has been around since the beginning of civilization.The grains futures contracts of today are cousins of ancient trading and are as important now as they were then. The most traded grain futures include:
Metals trading takes many forms and some of the most popular metals are:
Energy Futures
The number of hedge funds with energy trading strategies doubles yearly according to Forbes magazine and is now an important part of many overall trading mixes. Energy futures include:
Meats futures are financial instruments that are used to hedge price risk or to speculate on price fluctuations in livestock and meat markets. The meat futures include:
ETFs are groups of securities that are traded just like individual stocks.
Interest Rate Futures are defined as a percentage of the value of the applicable debt. The value of interest rate futures contracts is tied to interest rates.
Stock index futures are traded in the number of contracts. Each contract is to buy or sell a fixed value of the index.
- Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
- CAC 40 Index
- Continuous Commodity CCI Index
- DAX Index
- E-Mini DJIA
- E-Mini NASDAQ 100
- E-Mini S&P 500 Index
- EuroStoxx 50 Index
- FTSE 100 Index
- Hang Seng Index
- NASDAQ 100 Index
- NASDAQ Composite Index
- Nikkei 225 Index
- Singapore Straights Times Index
- S&P 100 Index
- S&P 500 Index
- Russell 2000 Index
- Share Price Index 200
Currency Futures is defined as transferable futures contracts that specify a price at of a specific currency that can be bought or sold at a future date. Common currency futures contracts traded include:
Forex Trading is the simultaneous buying of one currency, and selling of another currency.