What Is a Futures Contract?

Before you can read volume, you need to know where real volume comes from.

A futures contract is a standard agreement: price agreed today, settled at a set date later. Everything — size, quality, delivery month, tick — is fixed by the exchange. The only thing traders compete on is price.

And because every gold futures trade goes through ONE central order book on COMEX, every trade is recorded: price, size, time, and which side was aggressive. That public record is what volume trading is built on.

Spot FX and CFDs don't have that. Each broker is its own island.

Lesson 3 of "Volume Trading From Zero." Save it — lesson 4 (margin & mark-to-market) is next.