"Centralized" delivery: that is, after the last trading day of the delivery month, all expired contracts are delivered at one time. "Decentralized" delivery: that is, in addition to the delivery of all expired contracts after the last trading day of the delivery month, delivery can also be made at a specified time between the first trading day and the last trading day of the delivery month.
Extended data:
Physical delivery refers to the behavior of the buyers and sellers of futures contracts to close the positions of the expired open contracts by transferring the ownership of the subject matter of futures contracts in accordance with the rules and procedures formulated by the exchange. Commodity futures trading generally adopts the way of physical delivery. After entering the delivery period, the seller submits the standard warehouse receipt, and the buyer submits the full amount, and goes through the delivery formalities at the exchange.
Generally speaking, there are two ways of futures delivery: physical delivery and cash delivery.
Physical delivery refers to the process that when a futures contract expires, both parties to the transaction settle the expired open contract by transferring the ownership of the goods contained in the futures contract. Commodity futures trading generally adopts the physical delivery system. Although the proportion of final physical delivery of futures contracts is very small, it is this very small amount of physical delivery that connects the futures market with the spot market and provides an important prerequisite for the function of the futures market.
In the futures market, physical delivery is an institutional guarantee to make futures prices and spot prices tend to be consistent. When the futures price seriously deviates from the spot price due to excessive speculation, traders will arbitrage between the futures and spot markets. When the futures price is too high and the spot price is too low, traders sell futures contracts in the futures market and buy goods in the spot market. In this way, the spot demand increases, the spot price rises, the supply of futures contracts increases, the futures price drops, and the spot price difference narrows; When the futures price is too low and the spot price is too high, traders buy futures contracts in the futures market and sell goods in the spot market. In this way, the demand for futures increases, the futures price rises, the spot supply increases and the spot price drops, which makes the spot spread of futures tend to be normal.
Physical delivery can be divided into seller delivery and both parties delivery.
The so-called two-party delivery means that both buyers and sellers of futures trading can apply for delivery, which is adopted by Dalian Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.
The so-called seller's delivery means that only the seller has the right to apply for delivery, and the buyer has no right to take the initiative to deliver.
Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange in China adopts this delivery method. The purpose of the seller's delivery is to reduce the occurrence of "more empty" violations. Internationally, well-known futures exchanges such as CBOT and COMEX all adopt the seller's delivery method.