I would like to make a comment on what the Kollel wrote in the Background to the Daf, regarding "Se'ah b'Se'ah" trading:
14) [line 11] EIN POSKIN AL HA'PEIROS AD SHE'YETZEI HA'SHA'AR...........a futures contract, in which a buyer pays for a set amount of produce for delivery at a later date. ( See below for a full copy of our comments - Kollel Iyun Hadaf )
In a futures contract nothing is paid until the delivery date. (A margin is used for security purposes) So if this was a real futures contract it would be Mutar?! Seemingly the key is he pays now, in which case it is not a futures contract, and is misleading.
(I am just trying to help)
Jonathan Feldman
Your observation appears to be correct. In a modern day futures contract the buyer doesn't actually pay the seller up front for the commodity. In fact he doesn't even end up buying the commodity from the holder of the short (selling) position of the contract. Instead he buys the commodity (if, in fact, he wants the commodity) on the cash market and uses the futures contract as a hedge against rises in the price of the commodity. According to this scheme, there shouldn't be any issue of Ribis mid'Rabanan because nobody is holding onto anyone else's money up front.
The authors of the background information were using the term "futures contract" to describe the simple, straightforward contract between a buyer and a seller who are both interested in doing some long range planning and minimizing their risks.
Thanks for the feedback.
Kol Tuv,
Yonasan Sigler