Advantage of price movements
For speculators, futures have significant important advantages over other investments. You can make short-term profits by readily exploiting an increase or decrease in the market by taking advantage of price movements, whether they are falling or rising
Short (sell) the underlying share
Unlike share trading, Futures trading enables investors to short (sell) the underlying share without owning the share, therefore enabling an investor to exploit the market when prices are decreasing and not only increasing.
Futures are highly leveraged investments
Futures are highly leveraged investments. For example, the trader will put up a small fraction of the value of the underlying contract (usually 10%-15%) as margin, yet he can ride on the full value of the contract as it moves up and down. The money he puts up is not a down payment on the underlying contract, but a performance bond. The actual value of the contract is only exchanged on those rare occasions when delivery takes place. The commodity futures investor is not charged interest on the difference between the margin and the full contract value.
Commission charges on futures trades are small compared to other investments, and at Intrepid Capital, traders are only charged brokerage fees.
By trading though Intrepid Capital, there are no administration or management costs.
The markets are very broad and liquid.
Transactions can be completed quickly, lowering the risk of adverse market moves between the time of the decision to trade and the trade's execution.