Best Strategies for Futures Trading

The futures market is exciting and vast. It allows you to trade futures contracts on everything from sugar and cotton to energies and interest rates. You’re not limited to 1 sector of the global economy or strong economic periods. Some futures are known for their high volatility and broad price swings. It isn’t uncommon for some futures to trade down in the morning but close at a high at the end of the trading day. Investors need to understand the best futures trading strategies.

Experienced futures traders don’t go at it alone. They often use technical analysis and strategies to inform their decision-making. Sticking to a well-reasoned and backtested strategy gives you an upper hand when executing trades. But what are the best strategies for futures trading? Let’s find out.

Quick Look at the Best Futures Trading Strategies:

• The Pullback Strategy
• Going Long
• Breakout Trading
• Spread Trading

Before you can enter into a trade, have a plan to guide your decision-making process. Your strategy should be based on a careful analysis of the markets you intend to trade. Some of the aspects you’ll want to evaluate include:

• What’s your objective for the trade?
• How much risk is in the trade and how much are you willing to accept?
• If the trade turns against you, at what point will you liquidate your position?
• What type of orders will you use?
• How will you monitor price movements and market developments?

The futures market offers different types of futures and numerous opportunities to profit from price movements. However, great success is generated through the use of tested trading strategies. Here are Benzinga’s favorite futures trading strategies — all backed by market research.

1. The Pullback Strategy

This powerful futures trading strategy is based on price pullbacks, which occur during trending markets when the price breaks below or above a resistance or support level, reverses and gets back to the broken level. Resistance levels are price levels at which the price had difficulties breaking above. Support levels are price points where the market had difficulties breaking below.

During an uptrend, the price breaks above an established resistance level and reverses and retests the resistance level. After the retest is complete, you may enter with a long position in the direction of the underlying uptrend. 

During a downtrend, the price breaks below an established support level, reverses and returns to the support level again. This represents a pullback and you may enter with a short position in the direction of the underlying downtrend.

Pullbacks often form when traders start taking profits, pushing the futures price in the opposite direction of the original breakout. Traders who missed out on the initial price move can wait for the price to get back to the resistance or support level to enter a more favorable price, pushing prices up again.

2. Going Long

You can buy futures contracts if you’re expecting the price of an underlying commodity to increase over a certain period. If your forecast of the direction and timing of the price change is accurate, you can sell the futures contracts later for a higher price, consequently yielding profit. If the price decreases, however, your trade will result in a loss. Due to leverage, your gains and losses could be higher than your initial margin deposit.

3. Breakout Trading

Breakout trading is a popular approach in day trading. A breakout occurs when an underlying asset’s price moves out of an established trading range. Breakout trading purposes to catch the market volatility when the price is breaking out of support and resistance levels, trendlines and other technical levels. 

The breakout movement is often accompanied by an increase in volume. Here, you look for a narrow trading range or channel where volatility has diminished.

The market experiences great volatility after a breakout occurs. This is because numerous pending orders are executed. You may try to take advantage of this volatility rise by taking a position in the direction of the breakout. The general idea is to go short when prices break below support and go long when prices break above the resistance level.

4. Spread Trading

The spread trading strategy involves the purchase of 1 futures contract and selling another futures contract at a different time. The aim of this strategy is for you to profit from an unanticipated change in the relationship between the buying price of 1 contract and the selling price of the other futures contract.

Spread trading lowers your risk in trading. Each spread is a hedge. Trading the difference between 2 futures contracts results in lower risks to a trader. Spread trading is also not affected by market volatility.

Best Futures Brokers

The futures market is a high-risk and complex endeavor. It can be difficult to master and needs patience, the right strategy and some guidance if you’re just getting started. Having the right futures broker to complement your trading experience and style is the first step toward success. 

The best broker for futures trading should offer the right balance for an intuitive platform, low commissions, up-to-date resource offerings and excellent customer service. Here are our suggestions for the best brokers for futures trading.

Stick to Your Trading Strategy

Failing to plan is planning to fail, so choose a strategy and stick to it. Futures trading is fraught with risk; discipline can be the difference between huge profits and devastating losses. The strategy you choose will guide your decision-making, and you shouldn’t let emotions get in the way of making appropriate trading decisions.

Whatever works for another trader might not work for you, so pick a strategy that aligns with your objectives and trading style. Simulate your plan on trading software before putting it into action. Ultimately, the right strategy will give insight into maximizing your winning trades while minimizing the losing ones.

Are you interested in learning more about futures? Head over to Benzinga's Futures & Options Courses.

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