Utilize your financial knowledge, give your answer or opinion to the input question or subject . Answer format is not limited.

How far into the future is a stock future?  How do stock futures work?
Context is key here. Futures don't really have to do with a time in the future in this context.  Futures are a capital market (futures market), just like Stocks are a market (stock market). Both capital markets have the ability to affect each other. Up until 30 years ago there was a separate use for the futures market, but in the days since they are MOSTLY used for stock derivatives (financial futures are the most widely traded contracts since 1980, hugely eclipsing the commodity futures that the market was designed for.)  So there is overlap and one affect the other, I'm not going to go into too much detail here but basically the futures market trades 24 hours a day, 6.5 days of the week and the  stock market trades 8-12 hours a day, 5 days a week.  So when the stock market closes, the futures market is still running will react and effect the broad stock market.  Hope that gets you started in your research