The person on other side of transaction has agreed to sell you that commodity or financial instrument at that specified price by specified date. If you sell a futures contract prior to that date you have offset your position and have either a profit or loss on trade.

The stock you bought 3 years ago is same stock you can buy today. Futures contracts, on other hand, have very limited lives. They are traded in a regular series of contract months referred to as delivery months.

Futures contracts have expiration dates after which no further trading for that month can take place. The September corn contract you traded last year is not September corn contract you are trading this year. In fact last September’s corn contract no longer exists.

Many futures contract months of same commodity trade simultaneously on market, sometimes even years into future. The current contract is called front month and other contracts are called back months. They are called back months even though they are for future months.

For example, corn trades for months of January, March, May, July, September, November and December. Suppose today’s date is August 4, 2000. The current contract month for corn would be September 2000 and so is called front month. The months of November and December 2000, January 2001, March 2001, May 2001 and July 2001 are back months even though they are in future and even flow into next year. (This may sound confusing but its not ...really)

All of these months can be traded at same time although most of trading activity takes place in front month.

When current month expires next contract month becomes front month and so on.

7- Cash Only The business should be cash only. No money is tied up, or lost,in accounts receivable, and bad debts.

8- Free of Government Regulations No business will ever be 100% free of all government regulations,but these should be kept minimal.

9- Portable The ideal business should be easy to relocate, and can be operated from anywhere in world.

10- Intellectual Satisfaction It must be a business that challenges your intellect in order to provide self-satisfaction.

11- Free Time The ideal business should allow you to have lots of free time for other interests that are important to you.

12- Unlimited Income Your income is not limited to your direct output. In other words, you work less...but earn more.

13- Easy to Learn The ideal home business should be one that is fairly easy for an ordinary person to learn, no matter what their age, or level of education.

So far I have found only one business that fits above criteria, and that is trading futures markets.