What's the difference between the last trading day and the last delivery day?
The last trading day refers to the last trading day of the futures contract in the delivery month. After this trading day, the open contract must be delivered in kind or in cash according to the regulations. The last delivery date refers to the last delivery date of the futures contract in the delivery month. If you don't want to deliver, you must close the futures contract before the delivery date or the last trading day.
Take Shanghai copper futures as an example. The last trading day of futures is 15 of the contract month, and the delivery date is three consecutive working days after the last trading day. In addition, in futures trading, different types of futures have different rules for investors to participate in trading and delivery. Generally, investors are not allowed to enter the delivery date in commodity futures, while financial futures are allowed, because the delivery of financial futures is much simpler than commodity futures.
Delivery method: "physical delivery"
In other words, if investors choose to deliver, they will get the real thing. So again, for speculators, try to avoid entering the delivery link. This is also the difference between futures and stocks. If the stock is quilted, it can hold the waiting market for a long time, but futures are not suitable for long-term holding strategy. In addition, another problem of physical delivery is that storage and transportation costs also need to be borne.