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Trade Corn Futures Online with XPRESSTRADE
Our user-friendly trading platform and exceptional customer service make it easy and convenient to add the pop of corn futures to your portfolio. We're a leading online corn futures broker.
About CBOT Corn Futures
The greatest use for corn is as a basis for livestock and poultry feed. But corn also serves as an important ingredient in many of the foods we eat every day — corn oil for margarine, corn starch for gravy, and corn sweeteners for soft drinks, just to name a few. Nonfood uses of corn include alcohol for ethanol fuel, absorbing agents for disposable diapers, and adhesives for paper products.
XPRESSTRADE offers trading in corn futures and options at the Chicago Board of Trade, as well as at the Tokyo Grain Exchange. We give farmers, ranchers, grain processors and merchandisers, and livestock feeders the ability to use corn futures and options to manage their price risk. Speculators can also trade corn futures and options in hopes of profiting from changes in the price of corn.
CBOT Corn Futures Specifications
- Corn futures, Chicago Board of Trade, symbol C. The contract covers 5,000 bushels. The minimum tick is $0.0025 per bushel, worth $12.50 per contract.
- Open-outcry trading in corn futures is conducted from 9:30 AM until 1:15 PM Chicago time. Corn futures also trade electronically, on the eCBOT system, during regular trading hours, as well as after-hours, from 6:30 PM straight through to 6:00 AM the following morning.
- Principal trading months for corn futures include January, March, May, July, September, November, and December.
Buying and Selling Corn Futures
For those willing to incur the risk, you can profit from trading Corn Futures the same way as any other investment - by buying low and selling high. One difference with futures, however, is that it's just as common to sell "short" - to sell first, in other words - and then buy back later as it is to buy first, or "go long." With futures trading, if you think prices are going up, you simply establish a "long" (buy) position. If you think prices are going down, you initiate a "short" (sell) position.
Futures in general lend themselves to a variety of different trading timeframes: Short, medium, or long-term. The rapid price changes associated with Corn Futures create practically continuous trading opportunities. Just remember, though, that if your forecast proves wrong, you risk loss - and due to the high leverage involved in futures trading, the possibility of loss greater than your original investment.
Once you've established your futures position, you have a couple of alternatives:
- Offset your position by taking an equal but opposite position. You can exit from any futures position before the contract expires by taking an equal but opposite futures position (selling if you have bought; or buying if you have sold). Most futures are offset in this way. You don't have to wait until the expiration date to complete your trade - in fact, few investors do.
- "Roll" the position over from one contract expiration into the next. If you hold a long position in an expiration month, you can simultaneously sell that expiration month and buy the next expiration month (known as a "calendar spread") for an agree-upon price differential. The opposite is also true - you can roll a short position from the expiration month to the next available trading month just as easily. By transferring or "rolling" a position forward this way you are able to hold it for a longer period of time. For example, if you are holding a June Gold futures contract, you can sell the June futures before expiration and buy a December Gold futures contract, thereby expanding the timeframe of the trade.
