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Single Stock Futures
What are single stock futures?
Single stock futures are futures
contracts on individual stocks. There are currently
over 80 well-known stock futures such as IBM, eBay, and
Philip Morris. These futures products provide investors
with a cost-effective vehicle for participating in U.S.
equities markets.
Single Stock Futures offer investors a cheaper way of
investing in the equity markets and should, therefore,
have considerable appeal. They represent one the most
interesting developments in the field of financial derivatives.
This is both because of their trading potential, which
is very large, and the fact that they have only recently
became legal in the US.
With SSF, investors are now able to trade futures contracts
on some of the most popular individual stocks traded on
stock exchanges in the US, or on “baskets”
of stocks in selected sectors. SSF include approximately
50-70 of the most popular and actively traded stocks in
the U.S., such as Microsoft, Pfizer, General Electric,
IBM, Citigroup, AOL Time Warner, and Johnson & Johnson,
to name a few. In addition, investors can also trade Narrow
Based Indices (“NBI”). NBI are small groups
of stocks in a concentrated area of the equities market,
such as airlines, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, energy
and automotive.
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How does the futures price track with the price of the underlying
security?
Single stock futures values are
priced by the market in accordance with a theoretical
pricing model based on a formula:
Futures Price = underlying
stock price X (1+ annualized interest rate - dividend)
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LIST OF STOCKS BEING TRADED |
What are the advantages of single stock futures?
There are three significant advantages:
- With margin requirements of
20%, single stock futures provide a highly capital efficient
way to participate in equities.
- No uptick is required to establish
a short position.
- Market participants initiating
a short position should benefit from eliminating the
costs and inefficiencies associated with the stock loan
process.
Trading futures involves the
risk of loss. This includes the possibility of loss
greater than your initial investment. Stock futures
may not be suitable for all investors. Consult your
broker or financial advisor before trading.
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I AM READY TO TRADE!
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What are narrow-based indices?
Narrow-based indices are small
groups of stocks that allow an investor to take a position
in a concentrated are of the equities market such as airlines,
computers or semiconductor components. Each narrow-based
index generally includes about five companies.
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NARROW-BASED INDICES
LIST |
What are the advantages of narrow-based indices?
Investors can take a long or
short position in a concentrated basket of stocks without
incurring multiple transaction fees. Many difficult-to-execute
or advanced investing strategies such as spread trading
or sector rotation can be executed quickly and cost-efficiently,
as narrow-based indices are also subject to a margin requirement
of 20% of the cash value of the contract.
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CONTRACT SPECIFICATIONS |
How are expiration dates managed?
All futures contracts have expirations
dates. There are three basic approaches for managing
the expiration of futures contracts:
- Offset your position
- Wait until the contract expires,
then make or take delivery
- Roll the position over from
one contract month into the next
more info
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FREE
STOCK FUTURES
INVESTOR KIT |
I AM READY TO TRADE!
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
CLICK HERE
ONLINE FUTURES TRADING PLATFORMS - CLICK HERE

Customers wishing to trade
Narrow Based Indexes and Single Stock Futures Products, should contact
United Futures Trading, 1-800-840-5617 to obtain a copy of the required
Security Futures Product’s Risk Disclosure Statement. You
may also down load the required risk disclosure statement from stock_futures_disclosure.pdf.
Narrow Based Indexes and Security Futures Products are not suitable
for all investors. The risk of loss associated with these products
can be substantial.
First prepared 12/11/2002
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