30 Days to Market Mastery A Step-by-Step Guide to Profitable Trading by Jacob Bernstein.

The stock and futures markets have several functions. In stocks, the market allows corporations to raise funds for expansion of their businesses.

In futures, the most important function is to provide a means by which

producers—such as farmers, mining companies, banks, and the like—and

end users—such as manufacturers, food processors, petroleum processors,

and the like—can market what they produce and buy what they need. By far

these two groups of market participants comprise most of the transactions

that occur in futures. However, the third major group, traders or investors,

provide a buffer between the two major groups and also constitute a good

portion of market activity.