You are a speculator ("degenerate gambler") making a long bet on 50 live cattle futures contracts expiring in Dec 30,22 !. Each contract is for 500 live cattle. You are long the contracts as you see the price of live cattle going up in value over the near-term. You want to hold your trade until the end of the contract, but are simply betting on increases in cattle prices. How do you properly close out your trade? Go short 50 live cattle futures contracts on Dec 29th, 2022. Take delivery of 25,000 live cattle in a Chicago railyard on Dec 30, 22: Then put these cattle into semis and drive them to Montana to auction to local ranchers. Neither of the above is a sensible or proper way to close out my trade