Beginner 6 min read
Spot vs. futures vs. options
What each one actually is, what the fees look like, and which suits your goal.
Spot means you own the underlying asset outright — no expiry, no leverage unless you add it yourself. Futures are a contract to buy/sell at a set price later, typically leveraged, and they expire (or roll, for perpetuals, funded by a periodic rate). Options give you the right, not obligation, to transact at a strike price — you pay a premium for that optionality.
Spot suits holding and learning. Futures suit active directional trading where you want leverage and don't want to hold the underlying. Options suit defined-risk strategies and hedging — but the pricing (Greeks, time decay) is a separate skill from reading charts.