Let's look first at some definitions. My handy Wall Street Dictionary tells me that futures are "Commodities which are sold to be delivered at a future date". And I saunter over to a definition of "commodities" and find that they are "An agricultural product, mineral, or other tangible asset that investors trade on a cash or futures basis".

Before we look at what all this means please take a quick look at the following Web site. FuturePro.com has a very nice Web page that lists a lot of the information we're going to need to understand this form of trading.

First note that there are only six categories of commodities:

• Grains
• Softs
• Meats
• Metals
• Currencies
• Energies.

Take a quick look also at what's included in each of these separate categories.

For example, under the commodities of the "Grains" market, you can buy and sell soybeans, wheat, oats, corn, rice, bean oil, and bean meal.

Notice also that there are very, very specific trading hours for each of the commodities represented. You can only buy or sell during these limited windows of time.

And futures are also typically bought and sold from month-to-month.

So, now we know what is involved in "futures", what "commodities" are, that we can buy and sell them at specific times during the day.

One of the important concepts related to this type of trading, is that there are three types of trading that can take place.

"Online Paper Trading" is the newer form of trading that has evolved due to the World Wide Web. There is usually a fee to utilize this service.

"Self-Guided Paper Trading" uses the old-fashioned pencil and paper.

"Broker Assisted Paper Trading" uses the old-fashioned phone call to your broker.

No matter which of the options you choose from above, this stuff takes time! Let's say I wanted to dabble in one of the "commodities" listed above, I would track the ups and downs of that market throughout the day with a paper and pencil first.

The experts encourage me to make this a game of "make believe" before I actually jump in with my money. There is a certain way that these orders must be placed and a wrong order could be doom and gloom for my money.

I would note what price the "commodity" opened at, what the high price was during that time, and what it closed at. I would calculate the movement of this "commodity" for several days, or longer, to get a feel for its ups and downs.

At some point I would make a guess on what it's going to do in the upcoming month. If I had tracked it and noted a steady downward trend then I would assume that maybe that downward trend was going to continue throughout the next month.

In addition, this type of trading takes place in split seconds. Every second counts from the time you make the call to your broker to the three minutes or so after your call, when your order is placed.

And I'm already getting nervous. This requires organizational skills, split-second decision making, and uninterrupted segments of time on the phone. I have none of those things.

And most assuredly I do not have the uninterrupted segments of time on the phone. Why do our kids have to suddenly ask us a question when we pick up the phone? And how do they know we're on the phone when two seconds before, as we sneaked over and peeked in on them, they were engrossed in a video game?

The answers to these mysteries and more as we continue to learn about "futures."

Thank you for joining me,

Joyce