Lack of market depth in futures markets...

[johnymm]

Is there always a buyer and always a seller in futures markets?
For instance - if a contract has no market depth? What happens - my "market order" goes to a "limit order" until someone is ready to take it?

10x

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

What markets are you planning on trading? Very unlikely in practice unless you are trading something very obscure on a far-out expiry.

 

[johnymm]

What markets are you planning on trading? Very unlikely in practice unless you are trading something very obscure on a far-out expiry.

Gold and Oil.
Problem is that after I subscribed to some exchanges to see the market depth - as you mentioned - there is no market depth on far-out expiry contracts. Let alone that on some contracts i see only oustanding/pending orders only on one side of the transaction.
A wild guess is that the broker itself has something messed up and just doesn't show the market depth correctly.
But futures markets do not have market makers, right? So there is vitrually no one to guarantee order execution?

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

Gold and oil shouldn't be a problem - are you looking at the 'right' contract? There are several contracts for both, but only a few are traded in depth. Volumes do drop off a lot as you go further out, but if you're trading you shouldn't need to be more than a couple of expiries away. Try CL for oil and GC for gold (both Nymex/CME).

You're right that there aren't market makers as such, but market-makers rape anyone trying to sell (or buy) in size in illiquid stocks anyway - what you really see in liquid markets is the market participants making the market, not the 'official' market maker.