I. The meaning of futures
Futures, whose English name is futures, is completely different from spot. Spot is actually a tradable commodity. Futures are mainly not commodities, but standardized tradable contracts based on some popular products such as cotton, soybeans and oil and financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Therefore, the subject matter can be commodities (such as gold, crude oil and agricultural products) or financial instruments.
The delivery date of futures can be one week later, one month later, three months later or even one year later.
A contract or agreement to buy or sell futures is called a futures contract. The place where futures are bought and sold is called the futures market. Investors can invest or speculate in futures.
Second, the main characteristics of futures
1. The commodity variety, trading unit, contract month, margin, quantity, quality, grade, delivery time and delivery place of a futures contract are all established and standardized, and the only variable is the price. The standards of futures contracts are usually designed by futures exchanges and listed by national regulatory agencies.
2. The futures contract is concluded under the organization of the futures exchange and has legal effect, and the price is generated by public bidding in the trading hall of the exchange; Most foreign countries adopt public bidding, while our country adopts computer trading.
3. The performance of futures contracts is guaranteed by the exchange, and private transactions are not allowed.
4. Futures contracts can fulfill or terminate their contractual obligations through the settlement of spot or hedging transactions.
The emergence of futures trading provides a place and means for the spot market to avoid price risks. Its main principle is to use futures and spot markets for hedging transactions. In the actual production and operation process, in order to avoid rising costs or falling profits caused by changing commodity prices, futures trading can be used for hedging, that is, buying or selling futures contracts with the same quantity but opposite trading directions in the futures market, so that the gains and losses of futures and spot market transactions can offset each other. Lock in the production cost or commodity sales price of the enterprise, maintain the established profit and avoid the price risk.