Futures Crash Course

Discussion in 'Options' started by jammy, Apr 17, 2002.

  1. jammy

    jammy

    Hi all,

    I'm a new trader, I've been trading a long/short equity portfolio supplemented by some option trading as well. I'm up about 100% since 7 months ago on small capital.

    I just got an interview with a hedge fund that wants to take on a young person as a junior trader/analyst. The guy I spoke with said they made a significant amount of their money in futures and are looking for someone with some knowledge of the topic. I don't know anything about futures. So I want to learn about futures fairly quickly as my interview will be in a week and a half. I know, search the board..., which I am. So far I've only found a little, and some websites. I haven't looked at but I will. Also found some books that I will be reading. I just thought I would post this to see if I could get some help from anyone. I'll be visiting Barnes and Nobles today for a long time to bone up. So far the books I should be reading according to comments from the board are "Mcmillan on Options" and "Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques."

    I just thought I might post this and maybe later tonight when I come back there might be some comments. Thanks in advance for any help guys.

    Jammy
     
  2. matthew

    matthew

    Go to the library and get a book called the Commodity Trading Manual published by the Chicago Board of Trade. Many universities use it as the textbook for Futures 101 courses.

    Read this book 1st
     
  3. jammy

    jammy

    The B and A didn't have that book, but I read another, that wasn't so technically as I was looking for but gave me a brief history and understanding of futures contracts. Is there anywhere online that will discuss Futures more technically? I'm particularly interested in how one would calculate a value of a futures contract based on the current cash value, if this is possible. And also I'm interested in what happens when a future reaches its daily limit. I'm still looking, I may try another book store today to find the book, thanks for the info again.

    Jammy
     
  4. TigerO

    TigerO

    Check out:


    http://www.e-analytics.com/fudir.htm

    Then you might want to have a look at: John Hull, Options, Futures and other Derivatives

    and

    David Freedman, Statistics (very applicable to trading probabilities)

    Not that this has much to do with trading successfully or not, but they might want to check your knowledge in those areas, ability to think on your feet, and particularly understanding of probabilities.

    Good luck with the interview
    :)
     
  5. http://appliederivatives.com/beginners/index.cfm
     
  6. Ikspec

    Ikspec

    Derivatives with Disk by Hull is probably the most comprehensive text out there. It's not an interesting read, it's a textbook. But anything you want to know will definitely be in there. It happens to be pretty math-oriented and if you have absolutely no experience then it might be overwhelming and you might want to only look it over after reading something like Mcmillan's books.