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Natural Resources
These include commodities such as oil, natural gas, and their byproducts. The oil futures can for example be affected by OPEC’s (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) decisions to increase or decrease oil production levels. Some examples of these futures include home heating oil, natural gas, and gasoline.

Agricultural
This category, which is sometimes referred to as Agri, deals with products harvested from earth. As you might have determined, natural events play an important role in the supply/demand equation of this category. Grains, fruits, meats, and dairies and their by-products are all part of the Agri commodities. Some examples of these futures are coffee, wheat, corn, cotton, orange juice, beef, and yes, the famous pork bellies. (FYI, pork bellies are used to produce bacon.) Natural phenomena as well as shifting demands have tremendous impact on this sector. For example, hurricanes, earthquakes, or drought all adversely affect the farming industry, which in turn puts pressure on livestock feed,which in turn shrinks meat supplies driving up the future prices of pork bellies.

Contract Market Data

We already learned the futures contracts come with inherent specifications. These include the type of the underlying commodity, quality, quantity, and delivery date, among others. Contracts also have daily data associated with them as they get traded on various exchanges. …