Other than being one of the most traded cryptocurrency derivatives, futures embody many long-established derivatives.
Often, people confuse futures with options. Therefore, to trade in futures, investors must ensure they acquire the necessary knowledge behind futures trading, including its risks.
What are Crypto Futures?
Crypto futures allows traders to gain exposure to digital currencies without the need to possess actual cryptocurrency.
It is a similar concept to stock indices or futures contracts involving commodities, where an investor can take risks on a cryptocurrency’s future value. Upon agreement, the trader is supposed to use cash rather than physically dealing in crypto.
The trading contracts correspond to a value that equates to the specific cryptocurrency. Again, you do not possess any digital assets when trading futures.
The dominant aspect of crypto futures trading is that it protects against adverse price changes and extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies, whether Bitcoin or Ethereum. The high volatility of digital currencies allows traders to purchase the assets when they are low and put them on sale when they hike and vice versa.
Crypto futures are tradeable on derivative trading platforms like Binance Futures. Like spot trading, crypto futures trade 24 hours a day.
Due to the high volatility associated with derivative trading, traders must manage risks prudently, and it’s highly imperative to learn the fundamental basics of crypto futures before investing.
How Do Crypto Futures Work?
While digital assets are met with diverse and unique challenges, from high volatility to negative publicity in some states, some traders use this volatility to their advantage.
The most vital thing to note in crypto futures trading is that you only take risks on the crypto price changes without holding the actual asset.
Let’s consider a simplified example. Say John and Sarah entered a Bitcoin futures position at $40,000 each. In this scenario, John has a long position while Sarah took on an opposing trade. Upon expiration, the Bitcoin futures price settled at $45,000 for each contract. In this case, Sarah, who is holding a losing position, will have to pay the exchange the deficit loss ($45,000-$40,000 = $5,000). John, on the other hand, will receive a profit of $5,000 from the exchange.
Leverage is another crucial aspect of futures trading. It is the most important reason why one should consider futures trading. If John opted to buy Bitcoin in the spot market, he would need to spend $40,000 to buy one Bitcoin. Whereas in the futures market, John could gain the same exposure at a fraction of Bitcoin’s market value.
Basic Concepts of Crypto Futures Trading
Potential traders need to familiarize themselves with essential concepts to become experts in crypto futures. Being aware of these concepts will draw you closer to becoming a professional trader. The complications behind dealing in crypto futures demand a significant commitment to learning the basics, including how they affect each trade.
Leverage
The lure of leverage draws traders to the futures market. Futures trading is very capital-efficient due to leverage. For example, to buy 1 BTC on the spot market, you'd need thousands of dollars – $35,000 at the time of writing — depending on the current market prices. With a futures contract, you can open a BTC futures position at a fraction of the cost. This is only possible if leverage is used. The more leverage you have, the less money you need to put into a position. In contrast, leverage is not available in spot trading. Assume you only have USDT 5,000 in your spot wallet. In this instance, you could only afford USDT 5,000 in Bitcoin.
Margin (Initial Margin and Maintenance Margin)
An initial margin is needed for entry into a market position. Meaning, initiating a different position will call for adequate margin security. On the other hand, maintenance margin refers to the minimum amount that investors need to keep trading position(s) open. Maintenance margin checks are continuous and help in margin utilization calculation. When a trader's maintenance margin limit is hit, his position gets liquidated.
Funding Rates
Crypto futures contracts don't settle like traditional futures contracts. Therefore, exchanges require a system that ensures that the index prices and futures prices converge regularly. This mechanism is called the funding rate. Funding rates are calculated based on the price differences between spot and futures markets. Investors will pay or receive funding payments relative to the open market positions.
Funding rates can have adverse effects on traders. For instance, funding rates may surge in an overheated bull market, making it costly for traders to hold long positions.
Pros & Cons of Trading Futures
Lucrative endeavors such as futures trading come with their fair share of advantages and disadvantages. Herein are the pros and cons of trading these derivatives.
Pros
Crypto trading futures allows one to bet against the market. For example, one can profit from both rise in crypto asset value and its fall.
Crypto futures offer leverage on capital. This is advantageous as traders can gain significant exposure to an asset with only a fraction of its total cost. Therefore, leverage trading is the most attractive aspect of futures trading.
It allows for hedging. It is a perfect choice when it comes to hedging your portfolio.
Cons
Volatility: The high volatility can be a blessing or a torment to traders. Determining the market’s movement is not a guarantee.
Highly risky: Due to the leverage involved, crypto futures is one of the riskiest trading instruments. Novice traders should minimize their exposure to futures trading and trade them with a robust risk management strategy.
How to Trade Futures Contracts on Binance?
Trading futures contracts on Binance is pretty straightforward. If you are an existing Binance user, you can get started with futures trading within minutes.
To begin:
Open a futures trading account on Binance. Please note that you must enable a 2FA verification to fund your futures account before you start trading on Binance Futures. Read more about account opening here.
Deposit funds in USDT, BUSD, or cryptocurrencies supported by Binance Futures. Binance Futures supports a wide range of crypto assets as collateral.
Select your preferred futures contract. There are two types of futures contracts available on Binance: USDⓈ-M Futures and COIN-M Futures. For example, if you want to trade BTCUSDT perpetual contracts, please select USDⓈ-M Futures. For BTCUSD coin-margined contracts, select COIN-M Futures.
Select the appropriate leverage for your futures contract.
Place orders according to the various order types available on Binance Futures. For starters, you can select a buy-limit or buy-market order to purchase for your first futures contract.
Conclusion
Derivatives such as futures allow traders to speculate on future asset prices. Today, many exchanges offer futures trading. Being conversant with the basics of futures exchange helps you win big in this business. Futures trading can be lucrative if you have the proper knowledge and risk management techniques to avoid outsized losses. Thus, you should strategize and do due diligence before trading futures and understand both their advantages as well as their risks.
