The trader who takes a long position in futures, i.e., he/she will buy the underlying commodity of a futures contract, expecting to profit from price increase. For example, assume that when the contract matures in April, the price of wheat turns out to be 510 cents per bushel. The long-position trader who entered into the contact at the futures price of 506 cents would make a profit of 4 cents per bushel. The price at maturity is 4 cents higher than the futures price agreed on in the contract. As each contract implies delivery of 5,000 bushels, the profit to the long position would equal $200 (=5,000 ´ $0.04) per contract.

Profit to short = Spot price at maturity — Original futures price

Where the spot price is the actual market price of the commodity at maturity (i.e., the time of delivery).