1. Futures contract: refers to the standardized contract formulated by the exchange, which stipulates the delivery time, place and quantity of the subject matter; 2. Futures trading: corresponding to spot trading, spot trading refers to the buying and selling of commodities, and futures trading refers to the buying and selling of futures contracts;

3. Futures market: futures trading places can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Broadly speaking, it refers to clearing houses, exchanges and economic companies. , narrow sense refers to the futures exchange;

4. Commodity futures: taking physical commodities as the subject matter, such as cotton and soybeans;

5. Financial futures: taking financial products as the subject matter;

6. On-site trading: refers to the centralized bidding in trading places as an exchange, which is generally called exchange trading;

7. OTC: refers to the place where transactions are conducted outside the exchange, which is generally called OTC or OTC.

First, the main features:

The commodity variety, trading unit, contract month, margin, quantity, quality, grade, delivery time and delivery place of futures contracts are all established and standardized, and the only variable is price. The standards of futures contracts are usually designed by futures exchanges and listed by national regulatory agencies. Futures contracts are concluded under the organization of futures exchanges and have legal effect. Prices are generated through public bidding in the trading hall of the exchanges. Most foreign countries adopt public bidding, while our country adopts computer trading. The performance of futures contracts is guaranteed by the exchange, and private transactions are not allowed. Futures contracts can fulfill or cancel their contractual obligations through the settlement of spot or hedging transactions.

Second, the function:

(1) Discovering the price Because futures trading is a contract transaction of forward delivery goods, a lot of market supply and demand information is concentrated in this market. Different people, from different places, have different understandings of all kinds of information and different views on the forward price through open bidding. In fact, the process of futures trading is a comprehensive reflection of the change of supply and demand relationship and the expectation of price trend in a certain period of time in the future. This kind of price information has the characteristics of continuity, openness and anticipation, which is conducive to increasing market transparency and improving resource allocation efficiency.

(2) The emergence of risk-averse 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.

(3) Hedging Buying or selling a certain number of spot commodities in the spot market, and selling or buying the same variety and quantity of futures commodities (futures contracts) in the spot market in the futures market will make up for the losses in another market, thus avoiding price risks. Futures trading can preserve the value because the spot price of a specific commodity is influenced and restricted by the same economic factors, and the price changes of the two are generally in the same direction. Due to the existence of the delivery mechanism, the spot price of futures contracts converges near the delivery period.

The standard warehouse receipt of futures is a kind of physical delivery certificate made by the futures exchange, which is delivered to the owner after the delivery goods are accepted and confirmed to be qualified in the delivery warehouse designated by the exchange. Futures standard warehouse receipts can be used as a circulation tool, as collateral for loans or for the delivery of futures contracts. The warehouse receipt of futures grafted the financial attribute from the commodity attribute and provided the financial medium for the market. Enterprises in the upper, middle and lower reaches can raise funds through standardized warehouse receipts, which can realize the timely allocation of resources and better match the production plans of all parties. Generally, in futures trading, when the spot price rises, the holder will cancel the warehouse receipt for shipment, and when the spot price falls, the holder will register the warehouse receipt.