Don´t do futures. You´ll get yourself in big trouble.
If i recall it correctly, you don´t need actually money but some securities, like a house and that stuff.
They are like options, except that you don´t buy them. You buy for example a call and sell a put. If it goes the way you want, your call will be worth a lot and the put you sold will be worth nothing, but if not you will have to pay a LOT for the put.