The biggest short squeeze in the world?, page-4602

Futures contracts have been around for thousands of years. If I want to bet on live cattle I can buy or sell one contract which is for 40,000 lbs in cents/pound. No Govt. is going to insist that any commodity trade be backed up by the real thing, it's absurd.

You can buy and sell almost anything on a futures contract. If a farmer wants to hedge the price of his cattle he can sell a futures contract.

https://www.cmegroup.com

It's believed futures contracts originated in Mesopotamia around 1,750BC.

If I want to bet the price of silver's going down I can sell silver I don't own on a futures or options contract..