A futures contract is an agreement to sell or buy something at a future date. In most cases, that "something" is a specific quantity of a commodity, such as "10,000 barrels of crude oil."
Names, addresses and phone numbers of the world's futures exchanges are listed in the Numa Directory of Futures & Options Exchanges. An electronic edition of the Numa Directory (www.numa.com/ref/exchange.htm) is posted on the Internet.