Dow Futures contracts trade on an exchange, meaning that the exchange serves as the counter-party of every position. Otherwise, you would always have to worry about the person who held the other side of your position not sticking to the contract. If your counterparty were to go bankrupt, die, Trading Trading involves more frequent transactions, such as the buying and selling of stocks, commodities, currency pairs, or other instruments. The goal is to generate returns that outperform Trading in commodity futures and options contracts is very complicated and risky. Commodities prices are very volatile. The market is rife with fraudulent activities. If you aren't completely sure of what you are doing, you can lose more than your initial investment.