If you think the futures price will go up, go long (buy and open positions), go up (sell) and close positions, and earn: price difference = close positions-open positions.
If you think the futures price will fall, short (sell the position), fall (buy) and close the position, and earn: price difference = opening price-closing price.
Futures investors buy and sell (open positions) futures contracts (warehouse receipts) that are positions.
What shorting actually does is shorting (selling and opening positions).
How long futures are generally easy to understand, but how to short (buy short) is not easy to understand. Take short (short) wheat as an example to explain the principle of short (short) futures;
When the price of wheat is 2000 yuan per ton, it is estimated that the price of wheat will fall. You signed a first-hand (65,438+00 tons) selling contract with the buyer in the futures market. (For example, it is agreed that you can sell him 10 tons of standard wheat at any time within six months, at a price of 2,000 yuan per ton. (The value is 2000× 65,438+00 = 2000. )
This is short selling (selling open positions). In practice, you are selling open wheat futures contracts.
Why should a buyer sign a contract with you? Because he's awesome.
When signing a contract, you don't necessarily have wheat in your hand (generally you don't really want to sell wheat). If you observe the market, the market drops to 1.800 yuan per ton as you wish. You buy 100 tons of wheat in the market at the price of 1.800 yuan per ton and sell it to the buyer at the contract price of 2,000 yuan per ton.
(2000-1800) × 10 = 2000 (yuan) (the handling fee is generally10 yuan, which is ignored).
This is profit liquidation. In fact, you are buying a futures contract to liquidate primary wheat.
The buyer (not specified) who signed the contract with you lost 2000 yuan (the handling fee was ignored).
● Overall operation, you only need to sell one hand of wheat at 2000, and buy one flat at 1800, which is very convenient.
After the futures are opened, they can be closed at any time before the delivery date, or they can be bought and sold multiple times on the same day (generally, there is no handling fee for closing positions on the same day). If the price of wheat rises within half a year, you have no chance to buy low-priced wheat to close your position. You will be forced to buy high-priced wheat to close your position (you must close your position when the contract expires), you will lose money, and the buyer who signed with you will make a profit.
If you close your position at 2200, you will lose money:
(2200-2000)× 10=2000 (yuan)+10 yuan handling fee.
The buyer (not specified) who signed the contract with you earned 2000 yuan (the handling fee was ignored).
I wonder if I made myself clear.