Futures Contract Overview

Overview

A Futures Contract is a derivative product and is an agreement to buy or sell a commodity, currency, or other instruments at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future. They are either physically settled or cash-settled. BigONE offers several of its trading products in the form of futures contracts with Bitcoin or USDT settlement.

Futures contracts do not require traders to post 100% of collateral as margin so that you can trade with leverage of up to 100x on some of the BigONE contracts. All margin on BigONE is denominated in Bitcoin or USDT, allowing traders to speculate on the future value of its products using only Bitcoin or USDT.

BigONE offers Perpetual Contracts for tracking the price of Bitcoin or USDT at the moment. We will open more futures trading products in the near future.

Mechanism of the Futures Market

When trading futures contracts, you need to be aware of several mechanics of the futures market. The key components you need to be aware of are:

1. Multiplier: How much is one contract worth? You can see this information under the Contract Specifications for each product.
2. Position Marking: Futures contracts are marked according to the Fair Price Marking method. The mark price determines Unrealized PNL and Liquidation.
3. Initial and Maintenance Margin: These key margin levels determine how much leverage you can trade with and at what point liquidation occurs.
4. Settlement: How and when the futures contract expires or settles, is important for you to understand. BigONE employs an averaging over some time before settlement to avoid price manipulation. This time frame may vary from instrument to instrument, and you should read the individual contract specifications to see when the contract expires and check the individual settlement procedure.
5. Basis: The basis refers to what premium or discount the futures contract trades at when compared to the underlying spot price. It is usually quoted as an annualized %. The basis exists since futures contracts expire in the future, and there is either a positive or negative time value element attached to that expiry uncertainty.