Amateur Traders Rake in Big Profits as Metal Prices Soar in 2025

The Rise of Amateur Traders in the Commodity Futures Market

Prior to this year, Rob Ford, an electrician based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, never imagined he would be waking up before dawn to trade financial derivative contracts tied to the prices of sugar, platinum, and other commodities. But since joining a group of amateur traders led by a former Goldman Sachs Group trader, Ford has found himself focused on his brokerage account at all hours of the day. Financially speaking, his diligence has paid off: Account statements shared with DISCOVER TRENDS show that Ford has made about half a million dollars from bets on platinum and palladium futures in the span of a couple of months.

“I had a few buddies of mine who trade. They kept trying to tell me about how bad it was,” Ford told DISCOVER TRENDS. “‘Futures are horrible, oh my gosh, you’re going to lose all of your money following this TikTok guy.’” Ford ignored their warnings. He recently bought a home in Florida, a purchase partly enabled by his trading winnings. He also used some of the money to fund investment accounts for his two granddaughters.

Prices of metals like platinum, palladium, and, most notably, gold have soared in 2025. Gold futures have risen by more than 40% since the start of 2025 based on the performance of the most-active contract. Prices settled at a new record high of $3,686.40 on Friday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That marks only the latest leg in what has been a torrid rally for prices of the yellow metal. Based on the most-active contract, gold prices have soared 110% since the end of November 2022, surpassing gains for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Since the start of 2025, other metals have joined the party. Platinum futures have risen by more than 55%, silver futures by more than 46%, and palladium futures by more than 34%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

This recent performance has set the stage for what appears to be a “new bull market” in metals, said Jay Kaeppel, a senior research analyst at Sentimentrader, in commentary recently shared with DISCOVER TRENDS. And increasingly, individual investors are looking to get in on the action.

The Growing Trend of Individual Investors in Futures Trading

The nonstop activity in commodity markets, which trade virtually around the clock, has inspired a growing number of nonprofessionals to try their hand at trading futures tied to these metals and other commodities, industry experts told DISCOVER TRENDS.

Futures are not the only avenue available to investors interested in trading metals: Exchange-traded funds tracking gold, silver, and platinum prices are available, and investors can also buy physical metal coins or bars.

But futures offer something that other products don’t: ample leverage. Before trading futures, everyday traders will likely need to fund a margin account. Margin accounts allow investors to trade while only committing capital equivalent to a fraction of a contract’s value.

They are settled in cash and marked to market at the end of every trading day. If the value in an individual’s margin account falls below a broker’s minimum margin requirement, the trader must deposit more funds or liquidate their position. This is called a “margin call” — a broker will typically call or email a client to warn them about the need to deposit more money quickly before their position is liquidated.

This last feature makes trading commodity futures particularly risky. In a margin account, daily gains — and daily losses — are subject to compounding, meaning losses can quickly pile up, potentially leading to a margin call. Traders could also potentially be on the hook for more money than is in their account if markets see a big move and their risk isn’t appropriately hedged. Still, large brokerage firms often implement their own risk-management measures and will usually liquidate accounts before they fall into the red, one brokerage source said.

“The leverage cuts both ways, and most retail traders don’t appreciate how fast the losses compound,” said Tony Dong, founder of ETF Portfolio Blueprint.

“It’s not like buying a stock where if it goes down $1, you lose a $1. This is leverage. A $1 move in silver, if you own the full-size contract, is worth $5,000,” said Bob Haberkorn, a senior market strategist at RJO Futures, a popular futures brokerage.

Haberkorn said he often talks clients through risk-management strategies for their futures positions, like setting a stop-loss order, which would immediately close their position if a contract were to fall below a certain value. He has also worked with clients to buy put options, or put spreads, to protect their downside exposure.

The Risks and Rewards of Futures Trading

There is another risk that is unique to futures contracts: Unless a trader intends to take, or make, delivery of the underlying commodity or asset, futures positions must be rolled forward before they expire.

Investors can trade futures contracts linked to far more than just gold and platinum. Active futures markets exist for a range of agricultural and industrial commodities, including crude oil, gasoline, and soybeans. Futures linked to financial products like currencies, interest rates, bonds, and equities are also popular.

But metals are the hot commodities trade at the moment, said Joseph Mazzella, a former Goldman Sachs trader who has been trading platinum, silver, and other metals markets for the better part of five decades. During Mazzella’s tenure with the bank, Goldman was one of the most active players in global commodity markets. Mazzella retired in 2007, according to a Goldman representative who confirmed his employment history with the bank.

Mazzella acknowledged that trading futures isn’t suitable for most buy-and-hold investors. Futures are meant for trading, not investing. They require a different mindset and a more advanced understanding of how to manage risk.

“People are trading, and they have no idea what they’re doing,” Mazzella said.

Traditional stock-market index funds are still seeing huge inflows. But increasingly, amateur investors are gravitating toward risky products like futures, options, and leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds.

“If you want to actively trade these markets, there is money to be made,” Mazzella said. At any given time, he has dozens of positions open, trading everything from leveraged ETFs to commodity futures to shares of metals miners and other stocks. Members of a subscription Discord chat run by Mazzella copy some or all of his trades. He also runs a TikTok account with more than 60,000 followers.

On his website, he offers some resources, including a risk- and money-management bootcamp, that are available for purchase. He also discusses the risks associated with leverage on his Discord chat. A membership that includes access to Mazzella’s Discord chat, along with other educational and training materials, costs about $650 a year.

Years ago, futures were mostly traded by professionals or wealthier amateur investors, RJO Futures’ Haberkorn said.

But smaller contract sizes and their increasing availability on platforms like those operated by Charles Schwab & Co. and Robinhood Markets Inc. have helped make it easier for investors with less cash on hand to get involved, Haberkorn said. An influx of individuals who, like Mazzella, share their trades on social media have also helped inspire more investors to try their hand at futures.

“This has opened the door to a whole new universe of investors,” Haberkorn told DISCOVER TRENDS.

Earlier this year, Robinhood launched futures trading on its platform, which is popular with individual investors. The company said it saw 11 million contracts traded during the second quarter.

The “micro” versions of traditional futures contracts tied to gold and the S&P 500 have been among the most popular futures contracts traded on Robinhood, according to JB Mackenzie, the company’s vice president and general manager of futures and international.

New micro futures contracts introduced by CME Group, a major futures exchange, have also enabled more investors to participate in these markets. CME Group has recently launched more micro futures products, including a suite of micro grain and oilseed futures earlier this year. It launched micro e-mini equity index futures in 2019 and micro WTI crude futures in 2021.

Micro futures cover a smaller amount of the underlying commodity or index, allowing them to be traded with a smaller margin commitment. Their embedded leverage is still high, however.

Open interest in micro gold futures, which shows how many contracts are held by market participants at the end of a session, has been trending higher over the past few years, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Many Wall Street professionals question the wisdom of individual investors interested in trading futures.

“If you’re an amateur futures trader, it is really hard to have an advantage over the professionals, because they have so much more information than you,” said Larry Tabb, head of market structure research at Bloomberg Intelligence. “And because of the amount of leverage, small moves can wipe you out.”

Navigating the Volatility of Futures Trading

“They don’t move the same way a stock does”

Lauren Moss, an attorney based in Enfield, Conn., said she has had to adjust to the sometimes gut-wrenching swings in the value of her account balance since she started trading futures with Mazzella.

“It’s just a different mindset,” she said of trading futures. “They don’t move the same way a stock does.” She wouldn’t feel comfortable trading futures without the guidance of an experienced mentor, she added. So far this year, she has made about $27,000 trading palladium futures and another $33,000 trading platinum, according to account statements shared with DISCOVER TRENDS. Other trades haven’t worked out so well: Moss is nursing losses from trading wheat, sugar, and natural-gas futures.

Some members of Mazzella’s group got a lesson in just how volatile trading commodity futures can be in early April, when President Donald Trump unveiled his “liberation day” tariffs.

When trading opened on the evening of Sunday, April 6, Christopher Matlack, 35, a software quality assurance analyst in Fairfield, Conn., said he was down about $15,000 on a position in platinum futures.

At the time, he was worried he might get hit with a margin call. But fortunately, the market turned around. A statement he shared with DISCOVER TRENDS showed he has made about $20,000 this year trading platinum.

“I had conviction in my original reason to enter the trade, but sometimes you need to suffer through some pretty large drawdowns,” Matlack told DISCOVER TRENDS.