It’s time for the FIA’s annual Futures & Options Expo – an annual conference and exhibition showcasing vendors, exchanges, and other participants in the futures and options space. While much of the programming is directed at institutional participants, there is always a lot to discover for the retail futures and options trader as well. The conference takes place at the Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago from November 3 through 5.
In the 1840s, Chicago became a commercial center with railroad and telegraph lines connecting it with the East. Around this same time, the McCormick reaper was invented which eventually lead to higher wheat production. Midwest farmers came to Chicago to sell their wheat to dealers who, in turn, shipped it all over the country. This new method of commerce encouraged increased production and a more complex way of doing business produced new risks that needed to be managed along with the need for a robust way for discovering prices. Supply, demand, and their effect on market price brought this innovative form of commerce -- that we know today as the futures industry -- to life.
Picking tops and bottoms in markets is dangerous business. After all, the trend is your friend as they say. But, at some point, all markets must turn. Is it time to catch a falling knife in crude oil?
When it comes to trading, just like when developing any skill, you need a lot of practice in order to get good. So why limit yourself to stocks, which are only available to trade for a small part of the day, when futures are open almost around the clock?
Futures traders point to the copper market as a metal with a PhD. Conventional wisdom says that price trends in the copper market —a widely used industrial metal worldwide — can predict turning points in global growth trends.