Futures Trading Strategies

The most-often used trading strategies in the futures markets are pretty simple. You buy if you think prices are going up or sell if you think prices are going down. And, in futures trading, selling first is just as easy as buying first—the positions are treated equally from a regulatory point of view.....

If you expect a futures market’s price to be higher in the future than it is today, you would buy a futures contract, or “go long.” If you are right about both market direction and timing and the price indeed rises, you can then sell the same futures contract to collect your profit (minus commissions and other fees).