Long Futures
Buying a futures contract — agreeing to take delivery (or cash settlement) at expiry, and profiting as the price rises.
Being long futures means you have bought a futures contract and are obligated to receive the underlying (or cash equivalent) at expiration. You profit when the futures price rises and lose when it falls.
A long futures position is delta positive: you gain point-for-point as the underlying rises. Unlike long stock, long futures positions are leveraged, margin-based, and marked-to-market daily.
Long futures do not carry the dividend rights or voting rights of equity ownership — they are purely a price exposure on the index or commodity.
On the desk
A trader buys 2 ES contracts at 5,400 expecting a rally. ES rises to 5,450 (50 points). Gain = 50 × $50 × 2 = $5,000. If ES fell to 5,360 instead, the loss = 40 × $50 × 2 = $4,000 debited over the holding period via MTM.