Single Stock Futures (SSFs) are futures contracts on individual shares (stocks). A futures contract is a legally binding agreement that gives you the right to buy or sell an underlying asset at a fixed price on a future date.

Their contracts are standardized which means they have set specifications when it comes to size, expiry dates and tick movement (the minimum upward or downward movement in the price of a security). One can trade in either the physically settled contract (at expiry date, the actual underlying shares will be traded between counterparties) or the cash settled contracts (at expiry, cash will change hands).

The value of an SSF contract is normally equal to 100 times the particular share’s futures price (gearing).