What are "options on futures"?

[The_Krakenite]

I'm not a commodities trader, and maybe never will be. But from what I remember a long time ago some x-floor traders telling me...

Options on Futures on Nat-Gas = BOOM!

There is a good reason why people say trading Nat-Gas also goes by the name WIDOW-MAKER.

The only good thing about the Futures trading pits in the old Toronto Exchange, is that it was DEAD quiet in there, meanwhile the open outcry in the others was a circus. Reason being there was so much more $ to be lost in the Futures pit, it was sort of the rule to shut-up and concentrate.

 

[nooby_mcnoob]

WIDOW-MAKER.

The widow maker trade is more about the spread between current and next month. Natural gas might be volatile but you can size sufficiently to trade it successfully.

 

[guest_trader_1]

The point of using options in futures is mainly to trade with some sort of insurance against drawdowns on the underlying future contract.

Look for the "trading with insurance" topic, there are many books using options as a risk management technique.

Option on futures don't make much sense by themselves alone, but if they are included a part of a trading plan on the underlying future, everything comes together and it is easier to see why they were offered in the first place.

 

[Cabin111]

When the pandemic hit people were concerned about USO. Here is the thread...A lot of people got burned. If you had it in an IRA (and it went under), you would have had to pay off more than you had invested!! You and others would have been on the hook. Read the whole thread...

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/uso-price-question.343581/