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Learn to trade futures and options

Information on learning to trade futures and options.

For investors who are looking for a bit of a challenge, they often turn to trading futures and options. Options and futures trading can be a good bit more complex than stock.

A brief history of options and futures

The pivotal institution in the development of has been the Chicago Board of Trade which invented "to arrive" contract in 1849 for the delivery of common commodities.

The exchange now lists the following broad categories of futures:

• Agricultural
• Interest Rate
• Dow
• Metals

All futures contracts speculate about actions in the future, so a definite degree of risk is involved in trading.