A futures contract involves which of the following?

A futures contract is a standardized agreement to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price at a specified future date. This contract is often associated with commodities, such as oil, gold, or agricultural products, but it can also apply to financial instruments like stock indices and currencies. The fundamental characteristic of a futures contract is the commitment to deliver (or receive) the asset at the agreed time in the future.

The correct choice reflects this defining feature, as it explicitly mentions the delivery of a commodity at a future date, encapsulating the essence of what a futures contract is intended to accomplish—hedging risk or speculating on the future price movement of an asset.

In contrast, the other options pertain to different financial instruments or transactions. Buying shares of a company relates to equity investments, exchange of currency involves foreign exchange transactions, and loan agreements deal with borrowing and lending money. None of these options represent the structure or function of a futures contract, which is fundamentally about the future delivery of a specified asset.