New to futures? Visit our futures page on SaxoTrader and try one of our free futures courses or navigate to our futures FAQ.
- Placing a futures trade
- Trading futures from the trade ticket
- Trading futures from the watchlist
- Trading strategy futures
Placing a futures trade
Trading futures on SaxoTrader can be done in multiple ways, including from the trade ticket and watchlist.
Are you having problems viewing futures on the platform or being denied the ability to trade futures? Navigate to our futures FAQ to read more.
Trading futures from the trade ticket
Futures are usually traded using the trade ticket, which can be accessed through an instrument search, from the watchlist, or from the futures page overview.
Futures orders are constructed similarly to many other instruments, with order types such as market, limit, stop, trailing stop, and more. By using futures to trade underlying instruments, you can choose to buy (long) or sell (short).
One of the main differences between trading future contracts and simpler products like stocks and ETFs is that a future contract has an expiration date, at which point the seller is obligated to sell and the buyer is obligated to buy at a predetermined price. When searching for an instrument, you can view the expiration month and year:
The exact dates can be viewed in the Product Overview:
Futures are traded on margin, meaning that you can control a relatively larger position with the same cash amount. You can view the initial margin and maintenance margin requirements in the trading conditions of each future.
Saxo does not support physical delivery when trading futures. Read more: How does Futures expiry work?
Trading futures from the watchlist
Futures can also be traded from the watchlist. By double-clicking on a future from the watchlist, it opens up the trade ticket directly. Alternatively, right-click and click New Trade to open the trade ticket.
You can add any instrument to one of your watchlists by clicking on the star icon from the product overview.
Trading strategy futures
Futures strategy and contract futures are closely related concepts, but they differ in their purpose and application.
Example - Gold Spreads
For this example, we will explore a calendar spread strategy using gold futures contracts.
The strategy involves trading the GCQ6-Z6 spread, which consists of gold futures contracts with expiration dates in August and December 2026. By employing this approach, traders aim to capitalize on changes in the price difference between the two futures contracts with different expiration dates.
The goal is to profit from the relative price movement between the August and December contracts, rather than the absolute price of gold itself.
At the bottom of the trade ticket, you will find a specification of buy and sell legs as shown below:
Also read: How to roll an expiring Futures position with Futures Spreads?