IME Futures Trade Near $40 Million in 1 Month   

An estimated 189,930 futures contracts worth 11.41 trillion rials ($39.3 million) changed hands at the Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) in the last calendar month to August 22. 
Farm products including saffron, pistachio and cumin plus precious metals (silver and gold) comprised the underlying assets. 
“Negin Saffron” was the top traded futures in the month, accounting for 77% of the volume and 63% of value of the futures. 
According to data seen on imereport.ir, 146,100 Negin futures valued at 7.2 trillion rials ($24.8 million) changed hands at the IME for deliveries in September, November and January 2023. Negin is considered the best quality of saffron produced in Iran. 
In the mentioned month, 38,336 gold fund futures with an estimated value of 4.11 trillion rials ($14m) were sold in the IME derivative market, accounting for 20% of volume and 36% of value of the total traded futures.  The underlying asset for precious metal futures is units of gold-based exchange-traded funds. 
Traders exchanged 5,496 silver futures worth 98.85 billion rials. 
A futures contract is a standardized, legal agreement to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future.
At the specified date, the buyer must purchase the asset and the seller must sell at the agreed-upon price, regardless of the current market price at the expiration date of the contract. 
Underlying assets for futures contracts can be commodities–such as crude oil, commodities, agricultural products, or other financial instruments.