Financial futures is a futures transaction with cash or financial securities as its content. Financial futures is a new development in the field of futures trading. Although it only appeared in the 1970s, it has developed rapidly. Including foreign exchange futures, interest rate futures, stock index futures, etc.
(1) foreign exchange futures
Foreign exchange is a freely convertible international currency, and foreign exchange transactions are the exchange of one currency for another. Foreign exchange futures refer to the trading of foreign exchange futures contracts.
Foreign exchange futures contracts are standardized contracts formulated by futures exchanges. There are uniform provisions in the contract on transaction currency, contract amount, transaction time, delivery month, delivery method and delivery place. Forex futures trading and China reached the only unspecified trading price in the contract through public bidding, thus completing the trading of foreign exchange futures contracts.
(2) Interest rate futures
Interest rate futures refers to the standardized trading of futures contracts of various financial documents, mainly treasury bonds, in the futures market. Financial voucher is the product of capital lending, that is, marketable securities, which is an interest-bearing asset. Including government bonds, government bonds, commercial paper, time deposit certificates, etc. Because the actual price of bonds is closely related to the interest rate level, it is called interest rate futures.
Interest rate futures originated in the United States. Since the United States government implemented the interest rate liberalization policy in the 1970s, the interest rate has changed greatly. With the increase of bond liquidity, the price fluctuates greatly, and the demand for interest rate risk hedging increases. 1975 10 Chicago mercantile exchange (CME) took the lead in launching the first mortgage-backed securities futures contract; 1976 1 launched short-term treasury bond futures,1977 launched long-term treasury bond interest rate futures in August; In May, 1982, the medium-term bond futures were launched with great success. 1982 and 1985, the London Financial Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange successively launched interest rate futures. At present, interest rate futures have become the mainstream of global futures commodities, and its trading volume ranks first among all kinds of futures commodities.
(3) Stock index futures
Stock index futures are the trading of standardized contracts based on stock indexes in the futures market. Stock index futures come from the risk of the stock market, and the frequent and violent fluctuations of stock prices will bring great risks to stock investors. In order to reduce risks and provide opportunities for some investors who are unable to engage in stock trading, stock index futures, which reflect the overall trend of the whole stock market price, have emerged. Among the varieties of financial futures, stock index futures are the only futures settled in cash.
On February 24th, 1982, the Kansas Futures Exchange launched the first futures contract called the composite average value index. On April 2 1 day, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched the S & ampP500 stock price index contract. On May 6th, the new york Stock Exchange launched a comprehensive stock index contract, and the Chicago Board of Trade launched a major market index contract on July 23rd. Stock indexes of other exchanges in the world include: Sydney Common Stock Index launched by Sydney Futures Exchange 1983, London Stock Price Index launched by London International Finance Exchange 1984, Hang Seng Index launched by Hong Kong Futures Exchange in May 1986, ToPxI Index launched by Tokyo Stock Exchange 1988, etc.