Introduction to Futures Trading 101
Published By: National Futures Association

Chapter 22: Liquidity

There can be no ironclad assurance that, at all times, a liquid market will exist for offsetting a futures contract that you have previously bought or sold. This could be the case, if a futures price has increased or decreased by the maximum allowable daily limit and there is no one presently willing to buy the futures contract you want to sell or sell the futures contract you want to buy.

Even on a day-to-day basis, some contracts and some delivery months tend to be more actively traded and liquid than others. Two useful indicators of liquidity are the volume of trading and the open interest (the number of open futures positions still remaining to be liquidated by an offsetting trade or satisfied by delivery). These figures are usually reported in newspapers that carry futures quotations. The information is also available from your broker or advisor and from online market reporting services and exchange web sites.



Past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading futures and options is not suitable for everyone. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, options and off exchange forex.