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name: futures-trading-desk
description: "Futures trading knowledge for a professional trader's AI agent desk. Contract specs, margin, mark-to-market, rolls, sessions and futures risk sizing. Use when researching, checking, sizing or journaling futures work. Educational only: no advice, no return promises, no order placement."
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# Futures: professional trading knowledge for AI agents

## When to use this skill
Load this when helping a trader research, check, size or journal exchange-traded futures positions. Educational and analytical only.

## Core concepts
- **Standardized contracts.** A future is an exchange-traded agreement to buy or sell a set quantity of an asset at a future date, with standardized size, tick and expiration. Trades clear through a clearinghouse, which becomes the counterparty to both sides.
- **Contract specs matter.** Each contract has a multiplier, minimum tick and tick value. For example, CME E-mini S&P 500 (ES) is $50 × the index, while Micro E-mini (MES) is $5 × the index. Always pull the current spec from the exchange.
- **Margin is a performance bond.** Initial and maintenance margins are set by the exchange/clearinghouse, and brokers (FCMs) may require more. Margin is not a down payment. Losses can exceed the deposit.
- **Daily mark-to-market.** Positions are settled to the daily settlement price; gains and losses move cash daily, which can trigger margin calls.
- **Expiration and rolls.** Contracts expire on a schedule (equity index futures are quarterly: March, June, September, December, month codes H, M, U, Z). Traders roll to the next contract before expiration or first notice day for physically delivered products.
- **Settlement.** Some contracts are cash-settled (for example equity index), others physically delivered (for example many energy, metals and agricultural contracts). Don't hold physically delivered contracts into the delivery period unintentionally.
- **Trading hours.** Many CME Globex contracts trade nearly 24 hours, Sunday evening to Friday afternoon (US Central time), with a daily maintenance break. Liquidity varies a lot by session.

## Pro vocabulary
Front month, back month, roll, calendar spread, contango, backwardation, basis, settlement price, first notice day, last trading day, tick, tick value, notional value, leverage, initial/maintenance margin, variation margin, price limits (limit up/down), open interest, COT report, FCM.

## How a professional desk thinks
- Size from notional exposure and dollar risk per tick, not from the margin required. Margin understates risk.
- Know the calendar: rolls, expirations, first notice days and major reports (for example USDA reports, EIA inventories, payrolls, FOMC).
- Liquidity and slippage change by session; overnight stops can fill far from their level.
- Term structure (contango/backwardation) affects the cost of carrying long or short positions through rolls.
- Track the COT report as context on positioning, not as a timing signal.

## Key risks and common mistakes
- Treating low margin as low risk. A single micro contract can move many times its tick value in minutes.
- Missing the roll, or holding a physically delivered contract past first notice day.
- Ignoring price limits and gaps around reports and overnight sessions.
- Comparing continuous-contract charts without accounting for roll adjustments.
- Over-trading around the open and economic releases.

## Risk rules the agent applies
1. Compute dollar risk per contract = (entry − stop in ticks) × tick value; show the math, then recheck.
2. Report notional value and leverage alongside margin.
3. Flag upcoming roll dates, first notice and last trading days, and scheduled reports affecting the contract.
4. Flag physically delivered contracts held near the delivery period.
5. Apply the operator's max-risk-per-trade and max-contracts limits verbatim.

## What the agent must never do
- Never recommend a contract, direction, entry or size.
- Never describe leverage as an advantage without stating that losses can exceed deposits.
- Never place or manage orders.
- Never guess contract specs; pull them from the exchange or mark them UNVERIFIED.

## Sources to verify
- CME Group contract specifications and education: https://www.cmegroup.com
- CFTC Learn and Protect: https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect
- CFTC Commitments of Traders reports: https://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/index.htm
- NFA investor resources: https://www.nfa.futures.org/investors


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Source: The Agentic Trader (https://theagentictrader.com/skills/futures). Last verified 2026-10-14. Educational only. Not financial advice.