China's stock index futures are mainly divided into three categories, namely, IF with the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 stock index as the target, IH with the Shanghai and Shenzhen 50 stock index as the target, and IC with the Shanghai and Shenzhen 500 stock index as the target. The specific functions are as follows:

1 Optimize the investment portfolio

Stock index futures is a derivative financial product of stock price index, which can be used as a tool for risk hedging. Broaden investors' investment channels.

2 Avoidance (risk transfer)

When the market itself estimates that the market is not good, investors can choose to participate in the trading of stock index futures contracts in the stock index futures market and short them, that is, sell the stock index futures contracts in their hands, and transfer the risks that may be brought by price fluctuations through selling contracts to lock in profits and losses.

3 arbitrage

Based on the principle that the basis difference between stock index futures and spot index will converge to zero on the delivery date. There are two specific operations. First, when the futures premium reaches a certain level, short the target stock index futures market and buy the relevant stock indexes in the spot market; Second, when the target stock index futures are expected to be discounted to a certain extent, they can be long in the futures market, and at the same time, they can be short in the market index ETF.

4 Discover the price

Stock index futures are liquid and can predict its future price trend in the trading market.

Because the stock index futures contract is a kind of futures contract, it also has similar characteristics with other futures contracts. However, it should be noted that it is not exactly the same. Investors must consider margin and leverage ratio when making investment plans to ensure the better performance of securities contracts.