> Systematically, the futures contracts for months that are further away, are more expensive than those with closer expiration, and also cheaper than spot > Th

> Systematically, the futures contracts for months that are further away, are more expensive than those with closer expiration, and also cheaper than spot > This is usually due to the fact that there’s a risk premium on the uncertainty of the future, and it costs a little bit to be sure of the price that you’ll pay for something three months from now. This is wrong. Being sure of the the price you'll pay in the three months from now does NOT cost this premium. It costs essentially nothing (other than the transaction fee, which is much smaller - of the order of 0.025% on most exchanges, plus the orderbook spread). Note in particular that this transaction cost doesn't depend on the time horizon, unlike the premium the author refers to.