Futures Trading Academy

What Are Futures? A Plain-English Introduction

What a futures contract is, why it exists, how long and short trades make or lose money, and why most traders close positions before expiry.

Futures Contract Specs Explained: Tick Size, Tick Value and Point Value

How to read a contract spec sheet and work out exactly how much money each price move makes or loses, with worked examples for ES, MES, NQ, MNQ, CL and GC.

Margin and Leverage in Futures

Initial, maintenance and day-trade margin, how leverage works in futures, margin calls, and why low margin doesn't mean low risk.

Futures Order Types: Market, Limit, Stop and Bracket Orders

The order types you'll use every day, when each one fills, what slippage costs in dollars, and how bracket orders protect a trade from the moment you enter.

Position Sizing and Risk per Trade

How to decide how many contracts to trade based on your account, your stop distance and a fixed risk per trade, with worked examples for MNQ, MES and MCL.

Futures Trading Sessions and When Markets Move

How the nearly 24-hour futures day is divided, when volume and volatility tend to rise, how scheduled news and weekend gaps affect risk, and the daily maintenance break.

Futures Rollover and Expiration

Contract months, month codes, when to roll to the next contract, how the price difference between months works, and why physically delivered contracts need extra care.

How Prop Firm Evaluations Work: Drawdowns, Targets and Rules

Trailing vs static drawdown, end-of-day vs intraday trailing, consistency rules, daily loss limits and the real costs of an evaluation, with worked examples.

Building a Trading Plan and Journal

What to put in a written trading plan, what to record for every trade, how to measure expectancy and R-multiples, and how to review your journal to improve.

Futures Market Hours and Holiday Schedule

CME Globex trading hours for equity index, energy, metals, interest rate, FX and grain futures in Eastern Time, the daily maintenance break, the Sunday open, and how US holidays change the schedule.

Futures Trading Glossary

Plain-English definitions of 77 key futures trading terms, from ask and backwardation to VWAP, including margin, rollover, tick value and prop firm drawdown terms.