The goal of the book is to provide a comprehensive overview of futures markets: what they are, how they work, how they are used, and for what purpose. The last few chapters also provide a brief overview of commodity options and options on futures contracts. While the primary objective of the book is to provide a general understanding of futures marketed, it contains a number of chapters that examine specific futures contracts and markets. If the reader is not interested in a particular type of futures contracts it can be omitted.