The essence of stock index futures is the process of transferring the expected risk of the stock market price index to the futures market, and its risk is offset by the trading operations of investors who have different judgments on the stock market trend.
As a basic risk management tool, stock index futures have the functions of price discovery and hedging. Its introduction fills the gap that China's stock market lacks the function of short selling and short selling, and the market lacks systematic risk management tools, which will change the current situation that the stock market lacks tools to avoid systematic risks and provide institutional investors with new options for asset allocation and risk management. For ordinary investors, it enriches the means of investment and makes the concept of value investment more deeply rooted in people's hearts.
The direct significance of the introduction of stock index futures lies in enriching the trading varieties in the futures market and adding new investment varieties and risk management tools for investors. For brokers, the introduction of stock index futures can not only increase self-operated varieties, but also open up new business areas and increase new sources of profit; For funds, the introduction of stock index futures not only increases investment varieties, but also improves the efficiency of asset allocation; For insurance companies, the introduction of stock index futures provides an extremely powerful risk management tool for their fund management. In short, the introduction of stock index futures has promoted the diversification of investment models of different investors.
-The introduction of stock index futures has linked the stock market and futures market together, changing the split state of the two markets. At the same time, the short-selling mechanism of stock index futures has changed the single stock market operation mode in the past, brought revolutionary changes to the market, and played a vital role in price discovery, asset allocation and hedging. In the short term, futures and securities can complement each other in terms of capital and talent management. In the long run, the improvement of the basic market trading system will make the domestic capital market return to the original international developed capital market.
The introduction of stock index futures provides investors with an effective tool to avoid and spread risks. Investors can avoid systemic risks through the combination of futures and spot investment, which has changed the way of avoiding risks only by selling spot in the past. Investors can use the leverage of stock index futures to enlarge investment and obtain high returns; You can also buy optimistic stocks and short stock index futures to avoid systemic risks and obtain hedging income. In short, through stock index futures, investors can not only gain profits by holding stocks in a bull market, but also lock in risks and obtain stable returns when the stock market fluctuates greatly.
-The introduction of stock index futures has improved the efficiency of resource allocation in the market. Price discovery is a major function of stock index futures, so stock index futures can guide spot prices to a certain extent, thus guiding and optimizing the allocation of social resources, improving allocation efficiency and promoting the full and effective play of the functions of China's capital market.
-The introduction of stock index futures can promote the reasonable fluctuation of stock prices and give full play to the role of economic barometer. The trading of stock index futures can condense all kinds of information and help to improve the transparency of the stock market. If the spread between the stock market price and the stock index futures market increases, it will lead to a lot of arbitrage between the two markets, thus restraining the excessive fluctuation of the stock market price; Call auction can produce stock index futures contract prices with different maturity dates reflecting the future changes of the national economy; At the same time, because the stock index futures price is generally ahead of the stock spot market price, it is also conducive to improving the information content of the stock market price.
The introduction of stock index futures has increased the international competitiveness of China stock market. Today, with the globalization of securities, the introduction of stock index futures has become a breakthrough for a country to enhance the competitiveness of its capital market, and it has continuously developed into an inevitable trend. Therefore, it is of great significance to promote China's integration with the international market and enhance the international competitiveness of China's securities market.