However, speculative trading is also a legal transaction, and too much interference and control will also affect normal investment. And certain speculation will also promote the market and bring investment fever. From the market point of view, it should be regulated by the market itself, and the market will prove everything.
From the perspective of economic principles, do speculators contribute to the market? If speculators want to make money, they must see the market trend clearly in advance, buy when the price falls and sell when the price rises. The result of this behavior is to promote the balance between supply and demand in the market. In other words, as long as speculators make money, they must be beneficial to society. Speculators' contribution to society lies in discovering the upcoming price fluctuations in economic activities through observation, research and prediction. Behind this price fluctuation are economic risks or opportunities that most people have not noticed. They eliminated risks through speculation and explored opportunities for social economy.
There is much speculation in the spot market. In Cantonese, "speculation" means speculation, such as "stock speculation" and "foreign exchange speculation", which are typical spot market speculation. There are also metal spot speculation, commodity spot speculation and so on. Futures trading is different from spot trading, which is a kind of buying and selling, while futures trading is both commodity trading and speculation. Therefore, speculation in the term loan market actually refers to risk speculation in the futures market. In order to distinguish the speculation in spot market and futures market, western economists call the speculation in futures market "market creation behavior" or "factors to ensure market liquidity". Because futures speculation is indeed a short-term and high-risk investment, it makes sense for some domestic scholars to call it "short-term investment". Speculation in the futures market is different from that in the spot market. It is conducted on a standardized exchange and is strictly bound by the laws and regulations of the futures market. The subject matter of the transaction is not the physical object, but the standardized contract of the futures exchange, which has little freedom and strong controllability.
The operation of futures market can not be separated from speculative "short-term investment" behavior. There is no futures trading without speculation, because all the functions of the futures market are realized without speculation.
First of all, the commodity market has the function of avoiding risks, and traders in the futures market avoid risks by hedging. Hedging means that people who order or buy a commodity in the spot market are afraid of falling prices and suffer losses. In order to lock in risks, they sell a contract in the futures market, or sell a commodity in the spot market and suffer losses for fear of rising prices in the future, and buy a contract in the futures market or sell and buy a contract at the same time. The purpose of hedgers is not to lose money no matter how the price changes, lock in their own risks and pass on the risk loss or risk gain to others. However, if there are only hedgers and no speculators in the term loan market, it is impossible to transfer risks. Only when hedgers and speculators correspond can futures trading be realized and the futures market can play a role in avoiding risks. Secondly, the futures market has the function of price discovery, which is formed by a large number of supply and demand and sufficient market liquidity. If there is no speculation in the futures market, everyone will hedge, supply and demand will be insufficient, trading volume will be difficult to form a scale, and market liquidity will be very small. As a result, the price is extremely high and low, and it is difficult to form a real purchase price that objectively reflects the relationship between supply and demand.
Moreover, the function of the futures market to slow down price fluctuations is also inseparable from speculation. Speculators buy when prices fall, increasing demand and prompting price rebound; Sell when the price rises, restrain the demand and promote the price to fall. Therefore, speculation objectively regulates demand, thus buffering price fluctuations.
In a word, market speculation is the inevitable product of the futures market and the basic strategy of any commercial transaction. People who don't understand, can't speculate and are not good at speculation can hardly win in the market competition.