A share is an ownership stake in a company; a security futures contract is an obligation and not an asset, has no value as collateral for a loan, and requires a margin deposit of 20 percent of the contract's current value from both the buyer and the seller, the basic requirement stated in the Risk Disclosure Statement for Security Futures Contracts. The condition that turns that difference into money is daily settlement: the contract credits or debits cash every session, while the share position does not.
What the share carries that the contract does not
FINRA's page on stocks describes equities as an ownership stake in a company, with profitable companies distributing earnings to shareholders as dividends that can be taken in cash or reinvested; the same page notes that common-stock dividends can be eliminated, while preferred dividends are usually fixed and paid before common ones. It also gives example figures for company size, while noting there are no fixed cutoff points: a small-cap company might be valued under $2 billion, mid-cap between $2 billion and $10 billion, and large-cap above $10 billion, though the boundaries could run twice as large.
The buyer of a security futures contract gets none of that. Such a buyer holds only a contract for future delivery, is not entitled to exercise voting rights over the underlying security, is not entitled to any dividends the issuer pays, and does not receive the corporate disclosures shareholders receive, states the disclosure statement, which points to the SEC's EDGAR system as the public route to those filings. Finding them is covered in find the original company filing.
One more asymmetry sits in the calendar. A share has no expiration date; a contract expires on a date the exchange sets, and an open position at expiration has to be delivered or cash settled.
Margin on a contract is a performance bond, not a down payment
For a stock purchase, margin means the cash the customer puts down toward an asset the broker lends against. For a security futures contract there is no asset to lend against, so the deposit exists because of the potential for loss in the daily mark-to-market process, and the disclosure statement calls it a performance bond. Both the buyer and the seller post it.
Worked example, taken from the figures in that same disclosure statement: a customer buys 3 July EJG security futures at 71.50, each contract representing 100 shares, for a nominal value of 71.50 x 3 x 100 = $21,450. Initial margin at 20 percent is $4,290. The next day the contract settles at 69.25, a mark-to-market loss of (71.50 - 69.25) x 3 x 100 = $675, dropping equity to $3,615. The position's nominal value is now $20,775, so maintenance margin at 20 percent is $4,155, and the account is $540 short.
Run the same $675 price move through a fully paid share position of 300 shares bought at $71.50. The holding falls from $21,450 to $20,775. Nothing is owed, no cash leaves, and no deposit is due. That is the whole distinction, and the leverage half of it is worked out in leverage changes the size of a move.
Three instruments, three sets of terms
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| Fully paid shares | Security futures contract | XBTF bitcoin index futures | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is held | Ownership stake in the company | Contract for future delivery | Cash-settled contract on an index |
| Dividends and votes | Yes; dividends can be eliminated | No | No |
| Minimum deposit | Full purchase price if unmargined | 20 percent of current value | Set by the exchange and the firm |
| Daily cash settlement | No | Yes | Yes |
| Expiration | None | Set by the exchange | Last business day of the contract month |
The third column shows how far the contract can sit from ownership. Cboe's XBTF specifications set a $1.00 multiplier and a notional size of 0.10 bitcoin, with final settlement in cash against an index value determined by FTSE Russell at 3:00 p.m. Chicago time. Nothing is delivered, and nothing was ever owned.
Firms can require more than the exchange minimum and can raise house requirements without advance notice, the disclosure statement adds, so the 20 percent figure is a floor rather than a quote. The daily mechanism that empties or fills that deposit is set out in futures mark-to-market, one day at a time.
Source references
Primary sources used for this guide. Follow the links for the original scope, definitions and conditions.
- Risk Disclosure Statement for Security Futures ContractsAccessed 2026-09-17
- StocksAccessed 2026-09-17
- Cboe FTSE Bitcoin Index (XBTF) Futures product specificationsAccessed 2026-09-17