1. Margin trading: small and wide.
Margin trading, as the name implies, means that investors can control the value of the whole contract by paying a small part of the contract face value as a deposit when conducting futures trading. This ratio is usually between 10 and 15%. In other words, if you want to buy a stock index futures contract with a value of100000, you only need to pay a deposit of150000.
This kind of transaction has undoubtedly greatly improved the profit space. Imagine that if the contract price you bought with a deposit of 65438+ 10,000 yuan has increased by 10%, then your profit is 100, which is equivalent to 100% of your principal! However, correspondingly, the risks have been enlarged accordingly. Because once the market moves contrary to your expectations, your losses will accumulate rapidly.
Second, the daily settlement: the profit and loss appear immediately.
Unlike buying stocks and not clearing profits and losses before selling them, stock index futures contracts implement a daily settlement system. In other words, after the end of each trading day, the exchange will settle the profits and losses of the contracts held by investors according to the settlement price of that day.
If your contract is profitable, then these profits will be immediately reflected in your account balance. You can choose to recover these profits or keep the contract. However, if your contract loses money, then you need to make up for these losses before the opening of the second trading day, that is, add margin.
Although this daily settlement system has brought immediate profit and loss feedback to investors, it has also increased the complexity and risk of operation. Because once the market trend is unfavorable, investors need to react quickly, otherwise they may face the risk of being forced to close their positions because of insufficient margin.
Third, risk management: prudent investment, steady income
As the stock index futures contract adopts margin trading and daily settlement system, investors must be extra cautious when trading. While pursuing high returns, we should always pay attention to market trends and our own risk tolerance.
First of all, investors should fully understand the rules and risks of the futures market and master the basic trading skills and strategies. Secondly, we should plan our investment funds reasonably, and don't put all the funds into the futures market. Finally, we should maintain a good attitude and discipline, not blindly follow the trend, not greedy for petty gains, and not give up easily.
In a word, as a high-risk and high-return investment tool, stock index futures contract requires investors to have sufficient knowledge, experience and risk management ability. Only on the basis of fully understanding the market rules and risks, prudent investment and steady operation can we obtain ideal returns.