A futures contract or futures option in which the underlying is a specific spread. Examples of underlying spreads include crack spreads, boil spreads, crush spreads, spark spreads, etc. A typical futures spread contract involves the purchase of one futures contract and the selling of another futures contract, with some different feature (e.g., same commodity but with different expiration dates).

Spread contracts are usually traded in agricultural futures and option markets and energy futures and option markets. For example, the soybean crush spread is the value of meal and oil extracted from a bushel of soybeans minus the price of that bushel. In this sense, the crush spread relates the cash market price of the soybean products to the cash market price of soybeans.