The futures market is a financial market that trades according to the agreement reached and delivers on the scheduled date. The obvious difference between spot and futures is that the delivery date of futures is in the future, and the conditions of delivery and payment, such as price, quantity, method and place, are stipulated in the spot contract, and both commodities and securities can be traded in the futures market. Although the contract has been signed, the goods bought and sold by both parties may be in transit, may be in production, and may not even be put into production. The seller may or may not have goods or securities.

The futures market in a broad sense includes futures exchanges, clearing houses or settlement companies, brokerage companies and futures traders; The narrow sense of futures market only refers to futures exchanges.

The futures exchange is the place to buy and sell futures contracts and the core of the futures market. A mature futures market is equivalent to a completely competitive market to a certain extent, and it is the most ideal market form in economics. Therefore, the futures market is considered to be a higher-level market organization form and an inevitable product of the development of the market economy to a certain stage.

According to the analysis of modern economics, the futures market belongs to the category of "incomplete market". In this market, the level of commodity prices largely depends on the expectations of buyers and sellers for future prices. It is precisely because of the lack of varieties in the futures market that a large number of enterprises that need to avoid price risks have no suitable safe havens and become the source of irrational speculation.