1 Definition of futures: The so-called futures generally refers to futures contracts, which are standardized contracts formulated by futures exchanges and agreed to deliver a certain amount of subject matter at a specific time and place in the future. This subject matter, also known as the underlying asset, can be a commodity, such as copper or crude oil, a financial instrument, such as foreign exchange and bonds, or a financial indicator, such as three-month interbank offered rate or stock index. If the buyer of a futures contract holds the contract until the expiration date, he is obliged to purchase the subject matter corresponding to the futures contract; If the seller of a futures contract holds the contract until it expires, he is obliged to sell the subject matter corresponding to the futures contract (some futures contracts do not make physical delivery when they expire, but settle the difference, for example, the expiration of stock index futures refers to the final settlement of the futures contract in the opponent according to a certain average value of the spot index). Of course, traders of futures contracts can also choose to reverse the transaction before the contract expires to offset this obligation.
2 Definition of stock index futures: Stock index futures are futures with the stock index as the subject matter. After a certain period of time, the two parties trade the price level of the stock index and make delivery by cash settlement of the price difference.
2 Stock index futures trading, futures trading is historically conducted in the trading hall through oral bidding by traders. At present, most futures transactions are completed through electronic transactions. When trading, investors input buying and selling orders through the computer system of the futures company, and the matching system of the exchange conducts matching transactions.
When buying and selling futures contracts, both parties need to pay a small sum of money to the clearing house as a performance bond, which is called a deposit. Buying a contract for the first time is called building a long position, and selling a contract for the first time is called building a short position. Then, the contract at hand should be settled daily, that is, the market should be marked daily.
You don't have to hold a trading position until it expires. You can reverse trade at any time before the expiration of the stock index futures contract to reverse the original position. This kind of transaction is called liquidation. For example, stock index futures contracts sell 10 on the first day and buy back 10 on the second day. Then the first one is the short position of opening 10 stock index futures, and the second one is the short position of closing 10 stock index futures. The next day I bought 20 lots of stock index futures contracts, and then I became a long position in 20 lots of stock index futures. Then sell 10 lots, which is called liquidation 10 stock index futures bulls, leaving 10 stock index futures bulls. A contract that is not closed at the end of a day's trading is called a position. In this example, on the first day after trading, the stock index futures with the position of 10 are short, and on the second day after trading, the stock index futures with the position of 10 are long.