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How to Trade Soybean Futures

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Futures contracts may help diversify revenue opportunities in your portfolio.
Learn the fundamentals of trading soybean futures contracts.
Use back-testing and paper trading to test your soybean trading strategies.

Because of their versatility, soybeans have become one of the world’s most widely produced commodities. As a result, the trading volume of soybean futures has grown to a level behind only the other commodities of crude oil, corn, and natural gas. 1

Follow this guide and learn how to trade soybean futures. If you’re interested in trading futures and more, consider opening a TradeStation account today.

Here’s a basic overview of how to get started

Learn more about trading futures at TradeStation

Contract Specifications

Soybean futures contracts have the following specifications:

Ticker symbol: The base electronic ticker symbol is ZS. For the specific contract, you would add the letter code for the month and the two-digit numbers for the year. For example, the November 2021 contract has the symbol ZSX21, where X is the letter code for November.

Contract size: 5,000 bushels

Price fluctuation: Contracts trade in one-quarter-cent increments. A one-point move is equal to $12.50 per contract.

Trading months: Trading months for soybeans are January, March, May, July, August, September, and November.

Exchange: You can trade soybeans through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Get 50% off futures brokerage fees.

$0.25 to $0.75 per contract per side*

  • Free market data (CME Globex Value Bundle)
  • Special day-trading margin rates
  • Access to over 350 futures and futures option products
  • Powerful futures trading and analysis platform
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Soybeans Fundamentals

To trade soybeans, it’s helpful to understand the basics that affect their price. These are all factors that may impact the supply and demand of soybeans and result in price movements.
Planting: Farmers plant soybeans from mid-March through May. The degree of success of the planting process will give traders some idea of the eventual amount of supply.
Podding: Soybeans start to reproduce in August. The pace of podding and other factors, such as pollination, may affect future prices.
Harvesting: Soybeans are harvested in October and November. Prices can be affected by delays or crop diseases, like Asian Rust.
Climate volatility: In recent years, unstable weather conditions and the increasing frequency of droughts have had an effect on the volume of soybean production.
Seasonality: Soybean prices have seasonal swings that are often predictable. If you study past price charts, you may be able to find soybeans trading opportunities.
Global trade war: The political conflicts between the United States and China have resulted in the imposition of tariffs on exports and imports and disruption in sales of soybeans to China. Continued conflicts may cause further uncertainty on soybean prices.
Dollar fluctuation: Since the United States is a major soybean exporter, fluctuations in the value of the dollar in the international market may affect soybean prices.

Futures Trading Demystified:
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Margin Requirements and Leverage

Futures contracts are highly leveraged, which enables traders to control a large value contract with a minimal amount of money.

CME soybean futures’ initial margin deposits generally range from 3- 12% of the contract value, and they change occasionally based on volatility and other factors. The maintenance margin is about 10% lower than the initial amount. If you fall below the maintenance margin, modify your position or make additional deposits to bring your account balance back up to the amount of the initial margin.

For smaller investors, the CME also offers a mini soybean contract with the symbol XK, which is only 1,000 bushels. As a result, the minimum initial deposit is one-fifth the required deposit for the full soybean contract.

Develop your Strategy

Your trading strategy can be based on either the fundamentals, charting, or a combination of both.

If you’re studying agricultural reports, you may see something — like adverse weather conditions or delays in harvesting — that leads you to take a long or short position on futures contracts. Or, you could establish positions based on your interpretation of chart patterns or moving averages.

Regardless of the strategy you decide upon, you can test your soybeans trading strategy and learn how to buy soybean futures without risking any money by paper trading. Or, you can use TradeStation’s database for back-testing your approach.

Download TradeStation’s ebook, Futures Trading Demystified: Your Futures Questions Answered, to learn the ins and outs of futures trading.

1: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/090215/analyzing-5-most-liquid-commodity-futures.asp

Corn grains

Futures Trading Demystified: Your Futures Questions Answered

In Futures Trading Demystified, get answers to the most commonly asked futures questions. Get your free guide to learn:

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  • How futures trading works
  • Why traders choose futures
  • Answers to frequently asked futures questions
  • And much more

Important Information: This content is for informational and educational purposes only. This is not a recommendation regarding any investment or investment strategy.

Investing involves risks. Past performance, whether actual or indicated by historical tests of strategies, is no guarantee of future performance or success. There is a possibility that you may sustain a loss equal to or greater than your entire investment regardless of which asset class you trade (equities, options, futures, or digital assets); therefore, you should not invest or risk money that you cannot afford to lose. Before trading any asset class, first read the relevant risk disclosure statements on the Important Documents page, found here: www.tradestation.com/important-information.
Futures offered through TradeStation Securities Inc. TradeStation Securities, Inc., TradeStation Crypto, Inc., and TradeStation Technologies, Inc. are each wholly owned subsidiaries of TradeStation Group, Inc., all operating, and providing products and services, under the TradeStation brand and trademark. When applying for, or purchasing, accounts, subscriptions, products and services, it is important that you know which company you will be dealing with. Please click here for further important information explaining what this means.

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Get 50% off futures brokerage fees.

$0.25 to $0.75 per contract per side*

  • Free market data (CME Globex Value Bundle)
  • Special day-trading margin rates
  • Access to over 350 futures and futures option products
  • Powerful futures trading and analysis platform
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