What are "futures" and "securities" ?

Answer 1

More or less what they sound like :-)

Future - you buy (or sell) now, a Contract, for the Future 'Rights' to an item. The Contract represents the 'future rights' and it is the Contract itself that is bought & sold.

If you buy, then you recieve the Contract now but only get the item in the future - if you sell then you must hand over the Contract now but only need to deliver the item itself in the future.


Security - you buy or sell the actual item now. If you buy, it's yours now. If you sell, you have to hand it over now.

See wiki for a more complete description ..