So, many of you probably have no idea what exactly a futures contract is or how people go about trading them. A futures contract is just a contractual agreement to buy or sell a particular a particular commodity or financial instrument at a pre-determined price in the future. Futures contract detail the quality and quantity of the underlying asset; they are standardized to facilitate trading on a futures exchange ( aka the futures market). Some contracts call on the physical delivery of the asset, while others are settled in cash. You can just think of a futures contract as a stock, and the futures market as the stock market.