Series 3 - National Commodities Futures  Market Operations -
Offsetting Contracts, Settlements And Delivery  Offsetting
Contracts, Settlements And Delivery There are three ways to
close a position in the futures market. Offsetting contracts
through liquidation is by far the most popular. Other players
will prefer, in certain circumstances, to come to a cash
settlement (in index or interest rate markets) or physical
delivery (in hard asset markets). You must be aware of each of
these procedures in order to be successful in trading futures.
A "liquidation" – also called an "offset" or a "reversing trade"
– completes a futures transaction by bringing an investor's net
position back to zero.  "Back to zero," by the way, does not
suggest that there is no profit or loss. It only means that, if
an investor has purchased a specific number of contracts for a
specific commodity, for delivery on a specific date, he has sold
the same number of contracts for the same commodity for the same
delivery date. If, instead, he