Futures, Commodities, & Options

The derivatives markets have exploded in popularity, trading volume, and complexity over the years, providing more investing and trading choices than ever before. Whether making a directional bet, volatility play, or hedging risk, derivatives allow you to calibrate every position to maximize profit and minimize risk. Learn powerful analysis methods, diverse trade set-ups, and execution techniques from top professional investors and traders.

Articles on Futures, Commodities, & Options

Gold was a little changed in the first half of Monday’s session. After closing last week, it was flat as it struggled for direction all week, notes Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Trading Candles.
Gold mining funds basically serve as leveraged plays on the precious metal. The mining companies have high fixed costs, but low variable costs. When the price of gold rises above a company’s cost of production, most of the price hike goes to the company’s bottom line. One fund worth considering is the iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners ETF (RING), notes Paul Dykewicz, editor of DividendInvestor.
Gold just lost about $40 over a couple of sessions, after setting yet another all-time high and threatening to close above $2,700 on a spot basis. Frankly, it looks like this bout of weakness could last a while. Let’s take a look at why, suggests Brien Lundin, executive editor of Gold Newsletter. 
(Sponsored Content) Last Friday, New York spot gold closed above $2,600 for the first time ever, setting a record high near $2,620 and putting $3,000 gold in sight. Gold bullion has now risen 27% this year and set new all-time highs in six of nine months. I think it's just the start, writes Bill Musgrave with Dana Samuelson, vice president and president, American Gold Exchange Inc.
Paul Tudor Jones, one of the most successful money managers of all time, once said: "I attribute a lot of my success to Elliot Wave Theory. It allows one to create incredibly favorable risk reward opportunities." Here’s what Elliott Wave analysis suggests about silver’s next move, writes Avi Gilburt, founder of ElliottWaveTrader.
(Sponsored Content) Last Friday, New York spot gold rallied another 1.2% to close at a new record high above $2,581. The spot price is still touching new highs as Treasury yields and the dollar fall on speculation that the Fed may deliver jumbo rate cuts, writes Bill Musgrave with Dana Samuelson, vice president and president, American Gold Exchange Inc.
The US dollar, and consequently gold, experienced quite a bit of intra-day volatility on Friday due to weaker-than-expected US jobs data and a couple of Federal Reserve speeches, leaving uncertainty about whether the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 or 50 basis points on September 18, notes Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at Trading Candles.
September is here, and its entrance is dashing hopes that September seasonality came early, states Danielle Shay of Fivestartrader.com.
Sometimes an investment outperforms by falling less. That’s what’s happened earlier this week when US equity indices sold off heavily while gold lost only a fraction of a percent. This isn’t just a short-term trend. The markets are always telling a story, and right now they’re saying that investors want to own gold, counsels Brien Lundin, executive editor of Gold Newsletter.
The Jackson Hole, Wyoming powwow for central bankers is behind us, and Fed Chairman Jay Powell didn’t disappoint markets. He said the time has come to start lowering rates, citing a softening labor market and inflation. We may get a correction in precious metals over the next few weeks, but I expect that will be a tremendous opportunity to load up on these assets, writes Peter Krauth, editor of Silver Stock Investor.

Experts on Futures, Commodities, & Options

Virtual Learning

Join Lawrence G. McMillan where he will discuss the current state of his option-oriented indicators, including seasonal patterns and what they say about the stock market. He will also discuss various historical patterns, including the following topics:

-The performance of $SPX

-What the option markets are saying

-And much, much more. 

For traders with a neutral-to-slightly-bullish outlook on a stock, covered calls are a popular strategy. But when a stock's price is too high to buy 100 shares, a more affordable option is the call diagonal spread, also known as the "poor man's covered call." In this session, we’ll simplify this strategy, showing how to select candidates and choose the expiry, delta, and strike prices. We'll also use the thinkorswim platform to analyze risks, break-even points, and success probabilities. 

Election jitters? Discover the one trade that every investor should consider, designed to benefit regardless of who wins—whether it’s the Trump Trade or the Harris Trade.

Executive editor of Gold Newsletter Brien Lundin and editor of Gold Charts R Us Omar Ayales discuss the current "golden era" in precious metals and investment opportunities. Lundin highlights central bank buying, de-dollarization efforts, and potential U.S. investor participation as gold prices rise. He predicts silver outperforming gold and recommends junior mining stocks. Ayales focuses on the shift to an inflationary environment, global fragmentation, and increased gold holdings as a reserve asset. Both experts note the lack of U.S. investor participation as a bullish sign and provide price targets for precious metals. 

 Join Phil Flynn as he discusses why the commodity super cycle may only be in the first phase.   

With our current economic climate and with lessons learned from history, NOW is the perfect time to invest in gold at cost, plus other amazing opportunities.   

With 44 years of gold market experience, American Gold Exchange President Dana Samuelson has pretty much seen it all regarding gold, until now. With gold hitting new, record highs in April Dana will explain what new factors have driven gold to its recent peak, and why higher highs are still likely. The fundamentals driving the god price are entrenched and rock solid and now they are being turbo charged by recent, new external factors. Dana will down on both the old and the new gold price drivers in this mid-year gold market update.  

Join Lawrence G. McMillan where he will discuss the current state of his option-oriented indicators including seasonal patterns and what they are saying about the stock market. He will also discuss various historical patterns, including the following topics:  the performance of $SPX, what the option markets are saying, and much, much more. 

Gold is getting attention again as new highs are being achieved.  Silver has lagged, and silver investors feel left behind.  Yet, the market activity is typical during the final phase of a significant bull market.  The dynamics for silver have never been as strong as they are currently.  Once the market reestablishes that silver, like gold, has a safe haven store of value component, the silver market will accelerate past gold, and the returns will be greater in percentage terms. 

Stock markets are overvalued, and a recession is looming. Precious metals are breaking out. Silver’s uses in solar panels, EVs, and even AI applications make it the “new oil.” But its price has major catching up to do. Silver will be the next uranium, which doubled in six months causing uranium stocks to soar. Now is the time to get positioned in silver and silver stocks. 



The growth of financial futures has been one of the most remarkable success stories in the markets. Their age is relatively green at just a little over 50 years old. Originally created to help farmers hedge against price changes between crop planting and harvesting, futures have grown since then to include interest rates, foreign exchange, metals, energy, weather, and even Bitcoin.

Whether trading agricultural commodities, energy futures, metals, stock indexes, or even the softs; futures provide the best bang for your buck. But leverage is a two-sided blade. In this section, MoneyShow.com trading experts provide a deep dive into the current futures market activity and price action to help you find ways to strengthen your portfolio, while mitigating risk and exploiting opportunities in these diverse markets.

Discover unique and critical futures trading strategies to help you generate more consistent profits and better manage your portfolio risk. From in-depth futures market economics to spread trading, you will take away new knowledge to help you better identify trading opportunities. Our contributors will share with you their time-tested commodities investing strategies and futures trading strategies. The insights you will learn will help you in your investing or trading with market intelligence that you cannot find elsewhere.

At the same time, the opportunities now available to individual traders in the option arena are astounding, having exploded in volume and complexity in recent years, offering option traders the ability to trade, hedge, or speculate in just about any stock, ETF, or commodity.

Our goal in these pages is to start you down the path of options trading and help you avoid many of the pitfalls that beginning options traders experience. Some of the top names in trading will familiarize you with options—what they are, how they work, and what opportunities they present. You’ll learn practical knowledge about when it is appropriate to buy/sell puts or calls, covered-call writing strategies, and advice on when to use each of these strategies. More experienced traders will learn profitable options trading strategies to help you make more money and better manage your portfolio risk.