: What do these numbers mean? (futures) The S&P closed at 1588.85 on April 12th. On www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/futures/ For stock futures, it gives the following data: > Index Future | Future Date | Last

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No, it means that is only the notional value of that underlying asset of that contract, generally. The contract specification itself is listed on the exchange's websites, and there are really no assumptions you can make about a particular contract. Where S&P futures have one set of specifications, such as what it actually represents, how many each contract holds, how to price profits and losses... a different contract, such as FTSE 100 stock futures have a completely different set of specifications.

Anyway in this one example the s&p 500 futures contract has an "initial margin" of ,250, meaning that is how much it would cost you to establish that contract. Futures generally require delivery of 1,000 units of the underlying asset. So you would take the underlying asset's price and multiple it by 1,000. (what price you use is also mentioned in the contract specification), The S&P 500 index is 88 you mentioned, so on Jun2013 you would have to delivery 88 x 1000, or ,588,000.

GREAT NEWS, you only have to put up 1.2% in principal to control a 1.5 million dollar asset!

Although, if even that amount is too great, you can look at the E-Mini S&P futures, which require about 1/10th the capital and delivery.

This answer required that a lot of different subjects be mentioned, so feel free to ask a new question about the more specific topics.

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The other answer covers the mechanics of how to buy/sell a future contract. You seem however to be under the impression that you can buy the contract at 1,581.90 today and sell at 1,588.85 on expiry date if the index does not move.

This is true but there are two important caveats:

the index on expiry date will likely be at a different level than today - and it is that level that will determine if you made money or not;
the reason why the future trades at a discount vs the index is that stocks in the index will pay dividends by June 13th and every time that happens, the index drops mechanically.

In other words, it is not the case that your chance of making money by buying that contract is more than 50%...

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The two answers given previously provide excellent information.

In relation to your statement:

If I buy the above future contract, does that mean I pay 81.90 on June 13th

You cannot buy the futures contract at that price. The 'price' you are seeing quoted is not a dollar value, but rather a value in points. Each contract has a point value, and this varies from one contract to another according to the specifications set out by the exchange. The point value is in dollars, and it therefore acts as a multiplier for the 'price' that you've seen quoted.

Let's look at an example for the E-Mini S&P futures. These trade electronically on the Globex exchange, the ECN order book of the CME, and carry the ticker symbol ES.

The ES contract has a point value of .

If the quoted price for the ES is 1581.75, then its dollar value is 50 x 1581.75 = ,087.50

So in order to buy this contract outright, with absolutely no use of leverage, then one theoretically requires ,087 in one's account. In practice though, futures are traded on margin and so only a deposit amount is required at the time of purchase, as CQM has explained.