FUTURES, contracts which provide for the delivery by the seller to the buyer of some commodity, generally wheat, corn, oats, cotton, coffee, sugar, and so on, or foreign exchange, or cer tain securities at a specified future date. A future is designated by the name of the month at which delivery must be made. Thus one buying October cotton, or other commodity, receives a con tract providing for the delivery to him of a specified amount of the commodity in the following October. Much speculation is carried on in futures but the practice is not legally regarded as gambling.