Some futures queries

Hi,
I have never traded in futures, but want to learn and start doing. So I asked the guy at the bank who looks after the shares department my doubts but even he didnt know much. So I am posting my doubts here.
Experienced traders please help me out.

1)When I buy a stock, it reflects in my account after t+2 and I can sell it only after it comes in my account. Is it same about futures or can I sell it the very next day also?

2)Presently I am using Quotetracker for live intra-day charts of cash segment. I asked them but they dont provide charts of futures. Is there any other (preferably free) software that will give me charts of futures?

Thank you.

Please do not venture into Stock futures directly.
Unlike shares which can be bought/sold in multiple
of ONE,futures can be done in ONE LOT.
Some shares have lot size of 1000 also.
You can find the list in NSE website.

Try you luck with Nifty future which has lot
size of 50.

Futures are MERE agreement rather they involve any
transfer unlike shares.

Hi friend,

Just stumbled on your post. Do not trade in futures unless you have gone through a few books on futures trading , fundamental / Technical analysis etc., It is very risky and invariably your first trade will give u huge profits to lure you into a huge loss position. That too with a lot of operators around beware!!!

Instead, as suggested by our friend here, try your hands on nifty with strict stop loss. Many threads of Traderji will guide you on it

Regards
Bharath

Better start with Minifty to test back the results as minimum risk and minimum profits, if you're satisfied, then go for Nifty Future..

Thank you all of you for your advice.
The reason I wanted to trade in futures (actually mini-nifty) is:

1) I studied the 315 strategy taught by Stockwithhunter. The 2 problems I thought I faced in implementing that strategy in cash segment was I wont be able to short, and I wont be able to sell for 2 days after I buy in case trade got whipsawed. Thats why I wanted to know if I can sell the future the very next day.

2) I dont want to trade much in stocks as I believe it is next to impossible to know about the financial health of a company for a layman like me. Case in point: Satyam.
But trading in mini-nifty would insulate me from frauds in any one stock

Please tell me if I am thinking in the right direction.

(Also, I must admit that I am applying all my ideas of buying and selling stocks to futures- except lot system. I dont know if this is true.)

Thank you.

The futures position is reflected instantly in your account. You can sell it within 2 seconds of buying it. Unlike stocks, futures can be shorted for positional positions too. At the same time, futures are leveraged positions and thus you have to maintain a MTM settlement money to keep your position open.


Intraday Live RT charts of futures are not free. You can take a look at icharts.in and investbulls.com for RT paid intraday futures charts.

From all the posts above telling me to study about futures in detail, I have started to get the feeling that just knowing trading in cash isnt enough to start trading in futures.

I will say what all I know about futures and please correct me if I am wrong and tell me what I am falling short of.
In fact i have tried to read about futures many times, but it gets too technical.

1) I buy say one lot of Nifty future trading at say 5000. So the total cost is 5000 x 50 = 250,000. But I dont need to pay the entire amount, just a percentage say 20% then that would be 50,000.
And when do I pay MTM? When my bought future price goes up or down? And that would be opposite for short position?

2)As ankitgarg said, I can sell it very next moment, or the next day or anytime after that.

3)If I buy future for the current month, it will end on last thursday of the month. If I am in long position, it will be sold, if I had shorted, it will be squared off automatically even if I dont do anything about it.

4)I am confused about one thing in particular: If futures are available for more than one month, which months future should one prefer buying?
Current or next?

Please bear with me if I have asked something that doesnt make sense.

Thank you.

I think its 10%, not 20% for trading in futures...

Here comes Liquidity into picture.
Current >Next >Far
So always prefer CURRENT only till 20th.
Afterwards take NEXT.

Margin can be better checked from your broker. There is some exchange decided minimum margin on top of which each broker adds some maintenance margin and the total is charged to you.
MTM is paid instantly. Say you bought one lot @5000 and market moves to 4990,then 10*50=500 will be deducted from your free equity to trade. The actual settlement will take place at EOD closing price and thats when the money will go out/come in to your account.


Like I said...you can sell it back instantly(if you went long). Basically you can cover your position anytime after you have initiated it.


If you carry your futures position to expiry, it will be cash settled. The difference between your future price(at which you opened the position) and the underlying instrument's closing price on expiry will be taken into consideration and settled. So if you were long at 4500 and Nifty Spot was 4620, you will gain 120*50=6000 in your account and if it was 4380, you will loose 6000.

In India, we have 1M,2M,3M futures or 1,2,3 months. The liquidity decreases as we move away from present to further into future. As columbus has already said, most liquid are current month futures.

Ankit