A Primer on Financial Derivatives
Financial derivatives are often used for commodities, like corn, oil, gasoline, or gold, and for currencies, often the U.S. Dollar abd the Euro. However, there are derivatives based on stocks, bonds, interest rates, and indices. Companies use derivatives to lower their operational risk for the delivery of raw materials, the changes in exchange rates or in interest rates. Trading requires a small down payment (margin) and usually consists of rolling positions (contracts are liquidated by another derivative before coming to term).