Single-Stock Futures

Stock Future Tips

 In finance, single-stock future (SSF) is a type of futures contract between two parties to exchange a specified number of stocks in a company for the price agreed today with delivery occurring at the specified delivery date. The contracts are traded on the futures exchange. The party agreeing to take delivery of the underlying stock in the future. The contract buyer are said long, and the party those are agreed to deliver the stocks in the future, the "seller" of the contracts, they are said to be "short". The terminology reflects the expectations of the parties - the buyer hope that the stock price would going to increase, while the seller hopes or expects that it will decrease. Note that the contract itself costs nothing to enter; but the buy/sell terminology are  linguistic convenience reflecting the position each party is taking (long or short).

SSFs are usually traded in the increments/ lots/ batches of 100. When purchased, no transmission of share rights occurs. Being futures contracts they trade on margin, thus offering leverage, and they are not subject to the short selling limitations that are stocks subjected to. They are traded in various financial markets, including those of the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, India and other countries. South Africa currently hosting the largest single-stock future market in the world, trading on average 700,000 contracts daily.