When an agreement is made to acquire goods or services on the futures market, the buyer and seller enter into a futures contract. An agreement to pay a pre-arranged price for a barrel of oil at some point in the future, hence future contract, so that a buyer undertakes to buy oil at an agreed upon price per barrel at an agreed date. The participants in futures contracts can basically be divided into three categories: hedgers (who want to neutralize their risks), speculators (who take risks with their investments) and arbitrageurs who may gains with no investment and at no risk.