How to trade futures: contracts, margin and expiry, step by step

Updated November 2026

Updated November 2026

How to trade futures comes down to four checks made before the order: which contract you are trading, what it is worth, how much margin it ties up and how the trade will end. A dated contract ends at expiry; a perpetual has no expiry, and traders pay or receive funding instead.

This guide to futures trading for beginners walks the same kind of trade through both contracts, field by field on the order ticket, with the margin and the fee worked out first. Ouinex offers crypto perpetual futures, and its other markets are CFDs: you speculate on price without owning the asset.

Futures, perpetual and CFD trading involves risk of loss. Leverage amplifies both gains and losses, and a leveraged position can be liquidated if the mark price moves against it.

What is futures trading?

Futures trading means buying or selling a contract that fixes a price for an asset on a future date. Traders speculate on the price change with margin and usually close or roll the contract before it expires.

In the classic definition, futures are agreements to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a set date. How does futures trading work today? Two kinds of contract carry the name.

Dated futures are exchange-traded contracts with a fixed expiry. They are standardised, listed by contract month, and settle in cash or by delivery of the asset.
Perpetual futures have no expiry. A funding rate, paid between buyers and sellers, keeps their price close to the spot price.

Ouinex offers crypto perpetual futures; read how perpetual futures and funding work for the mechanics in full. The futures contract has its own glossary entry, and a separate guide covers crypto futures compared with spot.

How to trade futures in six steps

Choose the contract: dated or perpetual. A dated contract has an end date built in. A perpetual stays open until you close it or the position is liquidated.
Read the contract specs. Check the size or multiplier, the tick size and the tick value. A tick is the smallest price movement a contract can make, so the tick value tells you what each step is worth. Then check the expiry date of a dated contract, or the funding terms of a perpetual.
Work out the margin first. Margin is the notional value divided by the leverage. A separate Tips guide, How to calculate margin, shows how to work out the margin before you place the order.
Choose the order type and size. A market order fills now at the best available price; a limit order fills only at your price or better. Size sets the notional, and the notional sets both the margin and the fee.
Set the stop-loss and read the estimated liquidation price. On a perpetual ticket, check that your stop sits before the estimated liquidation price, not beyond it.
Manage the end of the trade. Close or roll a dated contract before expiry. On a perpetual, watch funding while the position is open.

Dated vs perpetual futures on the order ticket

How to trade crypto futures on a perpetual differs from a dated contract in five places. The table walks one long trade through both, in the order a trader fills in the ticket. Field names vary by platform.

Ticket field or fact	Dated (expiring) future, exchange-traded	Perpetual future
Contract	A contract month and code, a multiplier (for example £10 a point), a tick size and a tick value	A pair, such as a BTC perpetual, with quantity in coin or in contracts
Expiry	A fixed last trading day. Index futures, for example, often expire in March, June, September and December	None: the position never settles on its own
What keeps the price near the underlying	Convergence: as delivery nears, the futures price moves towards the spot price	Funding: a periodic payment between longs and shorts; when the rate is positive, longs pay shorts
Margin	Initial margin to open, maintenance margin to stay open; a shortfall is topped up with variation margin. Gains and losses are settled daily	Margin = notional ÷ leverage, plus a maintenance level; the position is valued at a mark price, not only the last trade
Holding cost	Rolling: close the near month, open the next, cross the spread on both legs and take on the price gap between months	Funding, paid or received while the position is open, at a rate that changes
Ticket settings	Order type, quantity, stop	Order type, quantity, leverage, margin mode (isolated or cross), take-profit and stop-loss, estimated liquidation price
Trading fee	Varies by venue; not quoted here	On Ouinex, crypto perpetuals are 0.045% of notional

The table makes no case for either contract: a dated contract asks when the trade ends, a perpetual what it costs to stay in.

Margin, expiry and rollover: a worked example

Every number below is illustrative: it makes the arithmetic easy to follow and suggests no price, leverage or position size. Leverage, margin rules and liquidation levels vary by market, so read them from the ticket. For where each field sits on the platform, see placing a derivatives order on Ouinex.

A perpetual ticket, filled in (illustrative)

Field	Illustrative entry	What it sets
Side	Long (buy)	The position gains if the price rises and loses if it falls
Order type	Limit at $60,000	The fill price, or better
Quantity	0.1 BTC	Notional: 0.1 × $60,000 = $6,000
Leverage	10x	Futures margin: $6,000 ÷ 10 = $600
Margin mode	Isolated	Losses draw on this position's own margin; cross margin draws on the wider account balance
Stop-loss	$57,000	A 5% fall: a $300 loss before fees, if the stop fills at its price
Estimated liquidation price	Read from the ticket	Where the position is closed if its margin runs out

Then the costs, before you confirm:

Fee: crypto perpetuals are 0.045%, so 0.045% × $6,000 = $2.70. In this example the fee is charged on the opening trade and again on the closing trade, $5.40 for the round trip. On other markets, Ouinex charges zero commission on forex, stock indices and commodities: you pay the spread.
Funding: funding is applied to the notional value of the position. At an illustrative rate of 0.01% per funding interval, the position pays or receives 0.01% × $6,000 = $0.60 each interval. The rate changes, and so can its sign. Check the current funding terms on Ouinex before you hold a perpetual position.
Liquidation: at 10x, a fall of 10% (to $54,000) would use up the whole $600 before fees. In practice the position is closed earlier, because a maintenance level has to be kept. Read the exact figure from the estimated liquidation price on the ticket.

Futures, perpetual and CFD trading involves risk of loss. Leverage amplifies both gains and losses, and a leveraged position can be liquidated if the mark price moves against it.

Futures expiry and rollover on a dated contract (illustrative)

An index future at 8,000 points with a £10 multiplier has a notional of 8,000 × £10 = £80,000, and each point it moves is £10 on the position. The exchange sets the initial and maintenance margin, and gains and losses are settled each day.

To keep the position past expiry, traders roll over to the next contract month. Say the trader sells the near month at 8,000 and buys the next month at 8,030. Three things follow:

The spread is paid on both legs.
The new contract starts 30 points higher, £300 on one contract. If the index then stays flat, the new contract's price tends to converge towards it as expiry nears, so that premium can turn into a loss on an unchanged index.
The market can move between the two orders.

The risks specific to futures

Leverage: on the illustrative ticket, 10x turns a 1% price move into 10% of the margin. On dated contracts, losses can exceed the initial margin.
Liquidation at the mark price: a perpetual is valued at a mark price, and the position is closed when its margin falls below the maintenance level. A separate guide explains how a margin call differs from liquidation.
Gaps around expiry and rolls: a contract can reopen at a different price after a session break or a roll.
Funding swings: the rate moves with the gap between the perpetual and spot price, for as long as the position stays open.
The price gap between contract months: the next month can trade above or below the near month, and convergence can work against a rolled position.

FAQ: futures trading, answered

What happens when a futures contract expires?

Trading stops on the last trading day and the contract settles. Stock and index contracts settle in cash, while many commodity contracts settle by physical delivery. Traders who want to keep the position close it before then and open the next contract month, which is called rolling over.

Do perpetual futures expire?

No. A perpetual future has no expiry date and stays open until you close it or the position is liquidated. In place of expiry, a funding payment passes between longs and shorts to keep the contract close to the spot price. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs.

How much margin do you need to trade futures?

The formula is margin = notional value ÷ leverage. A $6,000 position at 10x ties up $600 before fees (illustrative numbers). On a dated contract, the exchange sets the initial and maintenance margin per contract. The maintenance level matters as much, because it sets how far price can move before the position is closed.

What is the difference between futures and CFDs?

A futures contract is a standardised contract with its own size, tick and either an expiry date or funding rules. A CFD is an agreement to exchange the difference in an asset's price between opening and closing the trade, so you speculate on price without owning the asset. A separate comparison of CFDs vs futures sets them side by side.

Conclusion

How to trade futures comes down to the same checks on every ticket. Pick the contract type: dated, with an end date, or perpetual, with funding instead. Read its specs: size, tick, and expiry or funding. Work out the margin and the fee before the order, not after the fill.

Then plan the end of the trade: the roll or close before expiry on a dated contract, the funding and the liquidation price on a perpetual.

Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss. Before you place a perpetual order, check what a perpetual trade costs on Ouinex.