what are options, futures, contracts, trading

Option
A contract in which the buyer receives the right to buy or sell an underlying asset at a predetermined price.
Futures
An agreement under which one party undertakes the day to sell, and the other party - buy standard amount of underlying asset at a predetermined price (the deliverable futures). Or the performance of the contract occurs at the price without physical delivery of the underlying asset (settlement futures).
The difference between the option and futures:
The main difference between options and futures lies in the fact that delivery on a futures contract is obligatory, as the only option possible. I.e., entering into a transaction, buying a call option, we may subsequently withdraw from it, losing out only the amount of collateral (prize).
Advantages from the point of view of the trading account of the investor:
Instruments of the derivatives market allow to invest not only in derivatives on shares, but also on the stock indices, oil, gold, agricultural products, interest rates, currency, even the weather, etc.
Purchase of an option - it's an investment that with a limited, well-known risk. Investor knows that to lose more than a certain amount he may not under any circumstances.