Future Trading Education University

Introduction to Options

Today’s markets are full of options. Discover how options on futures from CME Group can help you mitigate downside risk and diversify your portfolio across major asset classes such as interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agriculture and metals.

Options on futures for equity traders

This course is geared towards traders familiar with trading equity options and will show you how a little knowledge around futures can help you transition from equity options to options on futures, using many of the strategies you already deploy.

Option Greeks

Option prices are driven by multiple variables including changes in the underlying price, interest rates, passage of time, and changes in the expected volatility in the market.

Options strategies

Option Strategies are an integral part of a trader’s routine. Learn about common option strategies utilized by traders that express their view of market direction and expected volatility.

Introduction to Grains and Oilseeds

Today’s agriculture markets are highly complex. Agricultural grain futures and options provide the tools the industry needs to manage risk and help put food on the table for a growing global population.

Introduction to livestock

The livestock complex consists of Lean Hogs, Feeder cattle, and Live Cattle. Livestock futures and options provide the tools the industry needs to manage risk and help put food on the table for a growing global population.

Understanding South American soybean futures

Financially settled South American Soybean futures will offer a more precise tool to manage exposure to the Brazilian soybean market.

Introduction to lumber futures and options

Lumber futures and options provide risk management instruments for a constantly evolving marketplace.

Introduction to dairy

Dairy futures and options are useful tools for managing risks inherent to the dairy industry.

Hedging with grain and oilseed futures and options

Gain an understanding of how buyers and sellers of grains and oilseeds utilize futures and options to hedge their position to manage price risk.

Hedging with livestock futures and options

Livestock buyers and sellers face ever-increasing levels of price risk. CME Group Livestock futures and options provide livestock buyers and sellers with valuable tools to manage price risk and get greater control over their bottom line.

Understanding livestock market

Gain an understanding of key concepts of the livestock market.

Intro to Bitcoin

Are you looking to understand more about bitcoin and its relation to the futures marketplace? This course is designed for you. Review the basics of bitcoin. Learn more about the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR). And gain a deeper understanding of Bitcoin futures and how market participants can use them to manage bitcoin volatility and risk.

Micro Bitcoin basics

Micro Bitcoin futures (MBT) provide an efficient, cost-effective new way to fine-tune bitcoin exposure and enhance your trading strategies. Offering multiple benefits for traders, it’s important to understand the contract mechanics. This course will cover the basics of Micro Bitcoin futures, the fundamentals behind the contract, and different ways to use it.

Intro to Crypto futures

Cryptocurrency futures, available at CME Group, provide market participants with multiple products for cryptocurrency risk management or market expression. Expand your understanding of the cryptocurrency markets, products, and underlying reference rates.

Micro crypto futures and options fundamentals

Micro Cryptocurrency futures and options from CME Group provide an efficient, cost-effective way to fine-tune cryptocurrency exposure. It’s important to understand the fundamentals and mechanics of how these products work.

Intro to Ether

Interested in learning more about Ether and its place in the cryptocurrency marketplace? This course is designed for you. Review the basics of Ether. Learn more about the CME CF Ether Dollar Real Time Index (ETHUSD_RTI) and a reference rate called the CME CF Ether Dollar Reference Rate (ETHUSD_RR).

Intro to Power

CME Group (NYMEX) offers numerous cash-settled futures and option contracts for various electricity markets across North America. The contracts cover both hubs and zones in regional transmission organization (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) service areas. Learn how this dynamic market is structured and how market participants use power contracts to mitigate price risk in the day-ahead and real-time markets.

Intro to Nat Gas

The structure of the natural gas market has evolved over time and become one of the most competitive, efficient, transparent, and liquid natural gas futures and options market in the world. Explore the basics of natural gas infrastructure, key impacts like seasonality that affect supply and demand, as well as hedging physical product using futures and options products.

Intro to Crude Oil

Today’s energy crude oil market is truly global. From West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to Brent and DME Oman, the crude oil market fuels many of the world’s leading economies and impact nearly every nation. Energy crude oil futures and options provide the tools the industry needs to manage risk. Explore the key concepts and structure of today’s energy markets, including the factors that affect supply and demand and move prices. Learn how to use these instruments to hedge exposure and unlock opportunities.

Intro to refined products

Refined petroleum products are fuels that have been distilled from crude oil and other liquids into more useful products such as gasoline, diesel, and naphtha. Learn how Refined Product futures at CME Group are used to manage risk exposure and provide hedging opportunities across regional and international markets.

Basic principles of Micro WTI Crude Oil futures

Micro WTI Crude Oil futures offer the power and precision of trading a smaller-sized oil contract. At 1/10 the size of the benchmark WTI futures contract, Micro WTI Crude Oil futures offer the same robust transparency and price discovery of larger WTI futures with smaller margin requirements. Learn more about trading the Micro WTI Crude Oil futures in this course.

Understanding CBL Global Emissions Offset Futures

The CBL Global Emissions Offset (GEO) futures contract is positioned to harmonize the buying and selling of carbon offsets from global registries and global emission reduction projects. The physically settled contract allows for delivery of CORSIA-eligible voluntary carbon offset credits.

Intro to equity index products

If you were asked to picture trading the U.S. stock market, what comes to mind? You may think of trading shares of companies like Apple, ExxonMobil or Disney. But what if there was another way to express your views and gain broad-based exposure to U.S. equities - without trading each individual stock? One alternative is equity index futures and options. With a single transaction, investors can use these index-based contracts to manage risk or seek profits based on whether they think the stock market will rise or fall. Learn the basics of these contracts, including what they are, how they’re built and how many ways you can use them.

Learn About E-mini Russell 2000 futures

This short course will provide you a brief introduction to E-mini Russell 2000® Index futures. You will learn about E-mini Russell 2000 futures product specifications, see how you can set up calendar spreads or spread the contract against other large-cap or mid-cap contracts, and get an understanding of the differences between E-mini Russell futures versus the equivalent ETF product. If you are managing equity index exposure, this course will help you understand the basics of this efficient, flexible and robust equity futures product.

Portfolio Management with Equity Index futures and options

Equity index futures and options are important tools portfolio managers use to maximize capital efficiencies, minimize portfolio risks, and generate portable alpha. This course covers topics such as cash equitization, portable alpha, beta replication, and transition management.

Introduction to Topix

This course will provide you an introduction to the Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) and Yen-denominated TOPIX Futures at CME Group. TOPIX Futures enhance the current suite of broad-based equity index futures and offer an additional product to capture benchmark Japanese equity exposure. Gain a basic understanding of how to incorporate TOPIX futures into a trading strategy and how the contracts compare to Nikkei 225 Index futures.

Trading at a Basis to an Index (BTIC and TACO)

Explore how market participants can execute a basis trade relative to the official open or close for the underlying index. These mechanisms allow for managing execution risk and more efficient capital management.

Understanding the E-mini Nasdaq-100

Learn more about the E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contract. You will gain an understanding of the E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contract specifications, spreading between different equity index futures contracts, and the tools available to help investors.

Micro E-mini futures

This course will provide insight into the Micro E-mini futures, including a size comparison to classic E-mini contracts, a look at enhanced exposure and the benefits Micro E-mini futures can offer you.

Micro E-mini options

Gain an understanding of Options on Micro E-mini futures contracts. This course will review information including contract specifications, product listings, and expirations. Even get examples of how Micro E-mini options can be incorporated into your portfolio.

Intro to FX

Averaging over $5 trillion per day, the foreign exchange (FX) market is where currencies are bought, sold and exchanged. There are many ways to pursue opportunities of the worlds’ largest market, but FX futures offer many advantages over trading spot or over-the-counter FX.

Intro to Treasuries

Central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve help shape short- and long-term economic growth by restricting or expanding the supply of money circulating in an economy. They do this through the use of debt obligations called treasuries -- such as bills, notes and bonds – in which the government borrows money from the holder for a specified period of time. Because treasuries are viewed as being among safest of all investments, they can be in high demand

Intro to SONIA

Learn more about the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA), and the details of CME Group’s two SONIA-based futures contracts. Get details about the Quarterly IMM SONIA and the MPC SONIA, including the interest rate interval for each contract

Intro to ESTR

Euro Short Term Rate, or €STR, is the primary overnight money-market benchmark rate in the Euro area. Learn how the €STR rate is determined and how to trade contracts based on the €STR benchmark rate at CME Group.

Intro to SOFR

In 2014, the Federal Reserve commissioned the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC), tasked with identifying an alternative USD interest rate benchmark based firmly in market transaction data. After extensive research, in June 2017 the ARRC selected the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), a broad treasury financing rate, as the preferred alternative reference rate for the USD Marketplace.

Understanding STIR futures

Short-Term Interest Rate (STIR) futures offer one of the deepest pools of centralized liquidity in the markets, giving traders a cost-effective way to trade or hedge short-term fluctuations in money market interest rates. In this course, we will review pricing mechanics and product information of CME Group’s benchmark STIRs products: Eurodollar and Fed Fund futures, along with recently launched Alternative Reference Rate products: SOFR and SONIA futures.

Intro to precious metals

When most people hear the words precious metals, they think of jewelry or bullion. However, the precious metals market is more than just gold and silver. Other precious group metals (PGM) include platinum and palladium. These products can be used in jewelry, electronics, automotive manufacturing, and more. They can also be used to manage risk or to serve as a safe haven for capital during times of financial uncertainty. Get to know the precious metals market, explore factors impacting supply and demand, uses both industrial and commercial, and ways to hedge and manage risk.

Intro to base metals

Base metals are non-ferrous industrial metals including copper, aluminum, lead, nickel, tin and zinc. These metals appear in both industrial and commercial applications, therefore list of market participants who could hedge their price risk is vast. Some firms are hedging a physical price exposure due to their involvement in the supply chain of the metal, while others trade base metals as an investment asset. Discover how base metals futures can help you take part in the opportunities of this market, from how the contracts are constructed to how they may fit into your trading strategy.

Intro to Ferrous Metals

Ferrous metals are metals that contain iron. These are distinct from both precious and base metals. They include raw materials of iron ore and steel scrap and semi-finished products such as hot rolled coil. The mining, production, and distribution of ferrous metals is global. Explore factors impacting supply and demand, commercial and industrial uses, and hedging and risk management strategies.

Get to know aluminum futures

Aluminum is the most abundantly found metallic element and most widely used non-ferrous metal. Aluminum futures, from CME Group, provide price discovery, transparency, and the ability to hedge price exposure for the entire aluminum supply chain. Learn about the product specifications, the warrant and delivery process, and the Aluminum Auction.

Building a trade plan

Traders who win consistently treat trading as a business. While there is no guarantee that you will make money, developing a trading plan is crucial if you want to become consistently successful and thrive in the trading game. Every trader—no matter your experience—needs a plan.

Trading and analysis

You have created your trading plan and thought through a money management strategy that works best for you. Now it’s time to define how you plan to make buy and sell decisions.

Trade and risk management

Controlling risk while trading takes many forms. It starts with properly selecting which markets to trade, then moves on to decisions about allocating capital and taking appropriate-sized positions. But managing risk and limiting losses also is accomplished through understanding risk itself as well as human nature. Any trader’s chance for success improves with a disciplined use and understanding of money management techniques.

Technical analysis

There are two types of analysis used by traders to inform their trading decisions. Technical analysis and fundamental analysis. In this course, you will learn about the various patterns, indicators, and analysis techniques traders use when studying the price of a commodity. We will start at the beginning by learning how to read price charts. Then we’ll cover some of the more popular techniques such how to identify trend and reversal patterns, finding support and resistance levels, and various oscillators.

Using fundamental analysis when evaluating trades

Fundamental analysis is the process of determining the model price of a futures contract, now and in the future, using factors like economic data and industry financial conditions. A trader using fundamental analysis to inform their decisions is looking at how supply and demand could move price, now and in the future. The type of information a trader will use to formulate their opinions will differ across products, in this course we’ll look at each class of products and cover some of the variables that could impact price.

Market Regulation

Market Regulation works to protect market integrity, to enforce rules that protect all market participants, and to act proactively to mitigate risks to prevent damage to the marketplace. Market participants need to understand and comply with Exchange Rules. This course can assist market participants by providing information and resources necessary to meet their compliance needs.

Clearing

As a central counterparty, CME Clearing acts as the buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer to ensure the financial security of the marketplace and reduce clearing participants counterparty risk and achieve operational and financial efficiency. Gain an understanding of how the Clearing market structure is defined, risk management policies and procedures, and the activities of CME Clearing.

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