Futures are a type of derivative contract agreement to buy or sell a specific commodity asset or security at a set future date for a set price. Futures contracts, or simply "futures," are traded on futures exchanges like the Chicago-based exchange data, European derivatives market data etc. and require a brokerage account that's approved to trade futures. Compared to CFD/FOREX trading, Futures traders need to pay for the Market Data as they receive data directly from the exchange.