IDIOT'S GUIDE TO FED2
FUTURES CONTRACTS
PURCHASING A FUTURES CONTRACT
Futures contracts are offered by some of the exchanges in the Galaxy, but not all of them. Those that do sell them won't deal in all commodities, and the ones they do sell won't be tied to the production or demand of the planet's exchange. Each planet decides which commodities it is going to offer futures in, and which will be long and short, when the game fires up. That list is then fixed until the next reset, and won't change - however, the price the contracts are offered at does change, and that is affected by the movement of the exchange.
You can see what futures contracts are available on a planet by stepping into an exchange and typing 'DI FUTURES':
Mars Futures Exchange
Margin 4000ig/contract
(Minimum 2000ig/contract)
Min movement 1ig/ton
Max hourly movement 5ig/ton
Long contract in cereals available at 315ig/ton.
Long contract in crystals available at 537ig/ton.
Long contract in droids available at 849ig/ton.
Short contract in electros available at 306ig/ton.
Short contract in explosives available at 495ig/ton.
Long contract in firewalls available at 570ig/ton.
Mars actually offers many more contracts than this; the display has been truncated for the Idiot's Guide to save using up too many bits and bytes...
To buy a futures contract, type 'BUY FUTURES commodity' where 'commodity' is the commodity you are interested in. You must be in an exchange to buy a futures contract. You will pay your broker a deposit which he holds as a float, called a margin. The current margin is set at 4,000 ig for all Sol planets.
When you are not in an exchange, 'DI FUTURES' lists all your current futures contracts. You can be more selective: 'DI FUTURES planetname' will list all your contracts bought from the named planet, and 'DI FUTURES commodity' will list all your contracts in the named commodity. The information for each contract looks like this:
Mars Exchange - Woods Futures Contract
Long position (You to receive) Value: 131250ig
Cost: 131250ig Margin: 4000ig (minimum 2000ig)
Maximum loss: 10000ig
The cost is the actual price for the contract at the time you bought it; the value is the current price for a similar contract at the time you look at the display. When you buy the contract those figures will be the same; the value will change over time.
You cannot have more than 40 futures contracts at a time, but since you only have to shell out 4,000 groats for each one, an outlay of just 160,000 ig will get you a full portfolio. However, although the potential is there to make big gains, you can also make big losses!
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