I will use my voice to talk about what the future is.
Futures are not deceptive goods, nor are they expired goods. They are forward commodities. Why should there be a futures, because the spot market is not enough?
For example, many productive enterprises, such as edible oil plants, need soybeans to extract oil.
Soybean is his raw material and soybean oil is his product. Then in February, he thought that the price of soybeans might rise in the second half of the year (or he was worried about it). At present, the soybean in the spot market in February is 3,500 yuan a ton, and he needs at least 1 10,000 tons of soybeans in the second half of the year. If soybeans really rise to 3,700 yuan a ton in the second half of the year, he will spend 2 million yuan more on these raw materials needed for production.
What should I do? It is wise to buy first. I will buy 10000 tons at 3500. But the problem has arisen. If I buy it first, I won't use it for the time being. So where shall I put these ten thousand tons of soybeans? Want a warehouse? Storage capacity is a problem, and storage cost is a problem. It's a headache if insects grow mildew all the time. Even if these are solved, the 10,000 tons of soybeans will cost 35 million! Such a large sum of money will cost thousands or even tens of thousands of interest a day!
Thus, there is a futures market. The futures market is buying and selling forward commodities. This oil factory can buy a contract of 10,000 tons of soybeans in advance in the futures market. For example, the futures soybean contract in September is now 3530 yuan per ton (the general futures price is not much different from the spot price), so he bought a contract for 10 thousand tons of soybeans in September. In other words, he signed a contract, regardless of September, how much is a ton of soybeans on the market? You will sell it to me 10000 tons at the price of 3530. This has many advantages. First, there is no need to put these soybeans in the warehouse. Second, it does not occupy funds. Futures only need 5% to 10% margin (different varieties), that is, margin. Then enterprises can lock in the cost of these soybeans as long as they pay two or three million yuan.
In this way, enterprises will not cause operating losses because of frequent and huge fluctuations in the prices of bulk raw materials.
Of course, this is just a little basic knowledge of futures. If you really want to understand futures, you have to read a lot of books. It will take a year or two.
Finally, I wish you good luck in the year of the ox.