NG or QG (mini) is the most volatile contracts out there on a percentage basis. He was making a joke and not serious. Stick to the futures and get some education in greeks on the options and you will than see how these relationships work.
You can't, not with futures. If you want to limit your risk then you can always involve other products (options) You make or lose money. The farmer situation is different. If the farmer has a field of corn growing and wants to lock in the current market price he sells a future corn contract. If corn prices go up, he loses money on the futures contract but will make it up when he goes to sell the corn. If corn prices go down he makes money on the futures contract but makes less when he actually sells the corn. And of course he could settle his short contract position by physically delivering the corn if the timing works out right I suppose - I claim no knowledge of how that actually works since I only trade cash settled products, like ER2, NQ, ES.
Producers don't normally speculate about prices. When users are in the commodity markets, it's most often to hedge. Then, there are speculators.
Incestopedia also mentioned that you could spread. Do futures have options? (although I can't imagine it would be any different from what I do now). I still don't understand if there is no "strike price" how the contract holds value.
Yes, there are options on futures. The contract holds value because its cash settled if you hold it until expiration. Read all the "quick links" at the bottom of this page: http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/equity/emini-russell2000.html
Ok, this is cool. I am running out of questions. But I still have a few. If this is available "24 hours" how is that possible that ER2 can keep moving when RUT is closed for the day? I did a virtual trade this morning and made $260 in about 2 hours. - That was cool and that would never happen with options. - Exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks for the boost. I am sure I will be back again.