how long can i hold a futures contract 
futures contracts have an expiration date when the contract expires the buyer of the contract pays the agreed upon price for the underlying asset and the seller must deliver it if you own a futures contract you may hold it for as long as you d like up to the expiry investors can often roll over the contract to the next month to avoid the costs related to settling the futures contract the bottom lineindex futures contracts allow investors to make trades on various indices based on their predictions about the overall price movement of the particular index futures contracts involve margin meaning investors can trade much larger amounts of money than their actual available capital before trading futures ensure you understand how they work and that you can handle the volatility and potential losses they involve while futures trading has expanded dramatically in the past decade or so it s still often a losing bet for inexperienced traders 