Stock index futures,

Definition of Stock index futures:

1. Contracts to buy a range of shares at an agreed price but delivered and paid for later.

2. Agreements to buy or sell a standardized value of a stock index, on a future date at a specified price, such as trading New York Stock Exchange composite index on the New York Futures Exchange (NYFE). As an investment instrument it combines features of securities trading based on stock indices with the features of commodity futures trading. It allows investors to speculate on the entire stockmarkets performance, short sell (see short sale) an index with a futures contract, or to hedge a long position against a decline in value.

How to use Stock index futures in a sentence?

1. Traders and fund managers report mysterious buyers in stock index futures contracts over the past three months, on days and at times when cash prices for stocks were weak and under sustained selling pressure.