Futures are like an agreement to buy or sell something at a specific price in the future. So if you think the price of an asset will be higher or lower than what other people think, you could use futures to make money.
Some companies actually trade in futures to try and save operational costs. Like airlines trade fuel futures if they think the price of fuel will be high, it's like a locked in price for something you are gonna buy later.

So in laymen’s terms when can we expect the dip to ease/stop?

I’m wondering whether I should sell stock in eth/btc/ltc etc and load up on ripple because it’s down so much more atm, and make some quick gains (although chart analysis experts say ripple is set to go sideways not up or down in the short term).

Or should I send a little eth to Binance and buy some alts before they get any higher? Not sure if I should wait to allow my eth to return to a stronger value before I do that or if I’ll miss some good alt gains.
Note: I don’t have any alts atm but have my eye on 5-6 of the main ones you’d expect!

What would Pard do?

I bought some at 1.02 despite it being against everything crypto represents
Itll be due for another pnd after btc settles down

buy elf

Shill.

You better not be trying to cheat me again

rubs hands together

Bought 85,000 tron. Hope it works out

Goodluck!