Upon investigation, on 20 10 16543812, Beijing Petroleum Exchange Co., Ltd. was registered and established by Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce. The approved business scope is: organizing trading services of petroleum and petrochemical products and special equipment (excluding futures trading); Energy technology development, technical services, technical consultation and technology transfer; Lease machinery and equipment; Rent of commercial premises; Import and export of goods, agent import and export, technology import and export; Investment and investment management; Sales of petroleum products (excluding refined oil), chemical products (excluding precursor chemicals and dangerous chemicals), chemical raw materials, chemicals, biological agents, paints, coke, machinery and equipment, instruments and meters, rubber products, plastic products, fuel oil, solvent oil and lubricating oil. (If the above business scope belongs to the administrative license, it can only be operated after obtaining the administrative license). The sponsors of Beijing Post Office include a number of central enterprises: Beijing Guoyu Yewei Asset Operation Co., Ltd., CNOOC Investment Holdings Co., Ltd., Beijing CNPC Fangshan Yan Bin Petroleum Sales Co., Ltd., China Sinochem Group Co., Ltd., Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co., Ltd. and China Petroleum and Natural Gas Co., Ltd.
The "spot oil" of North Petroleum Institute is carried out through the "trading end of the spot trading system for refined oil products" provided to members in a unified way. As a trading platform, the trading terminal of refined oil spot trading system is essentially an electronic disk. Now its trading varieties are: 93# gasoline (ton) (code: ULP 1) and 93# gasoline (liter) (code: ULP 2); No.93 gasoline (50) (code: ULP3) and No.93 gasoline 100 (code: ULP4). According to the open trading structure, Beijing Post Office implements the membership system, and the members are divided into: resident members, trading members and authorized service organization members. Resident members refer to enterprises as legal persons or other economic organizations registered in North Petroleum Institute and enjoying the comprehensive services of North Petroleum Institute (including registration, transaction settlement, financing settlement, information and financial incentives, etc.). A trading member refers to an enterprise legal person or other economic organization that conducts spot trading business in accordance with the relevant regulations of North Petroleum Institute and enjoys the transaction settlement, financing settlement and information services of North Petroleum Institute. Members of authorized service institutions refer to enterprises as legal persons or other economic organizations engaged in market development and membership services within the scope authorized by the group company according to the relevant rules and regulations formulated by the group company.
There are two kinds of "spot oil" transactions in North Petroleum Institute: spot listing transactions and spot bidding transactions. The two trading processes are similar.
As we haven't seen the formal customer agreement yet, according to the available information, we can determine the basic trading rules of the "refined oil" transaction in Beijing Post Office as follows: (1) Quotation system: Beijing Post Office will quote an intermediate guide price according to the international crude oil market price and domestic price and the benchmark exchange rate of RMB against the US dollar of the People's Bank of China. Theoretically speaking, members can quote again on the basis of the intermediate guidance price. (2) adopt the margin trading system. Before the transaction, investors need to deposit real funds into the bank account of North Petroleum Institute. 93# gasoline (ton), 93# gasoline (liter), 93# gasoline (50) and 93# gasoline (100) respectively correspond to the minimum trading margin ratio of 4%, 20%, 4% and 2.5% of the contract value. (3) The system of minimum transaction volume, maximum single order volume, maximum single order volume and minimum delivery quantity shall be implemented in the transaction. (four) the transaction price system. (5) The transaction adopts a risk management system, and when the risk rate of the investor's account reaches a certain value, the trading system gives a risk warning; During this period, customers must add margin or transfer by themselves. Otherwise, the trading system will forward the customer's order until the risk level reaches more than 100%. In the whole transaction process, customers can go long or short, and buy and sell in both directions without any physical delivery. (VI) Trading time: the market opens every Monday to Friday (except settlement time, national legal holidays and the international market is closed), from 06:00 am on Monday to 05: 15 am on Saturday, and the specific trading time is subject to the announcement of North Petroleum Institute.
Within one month after Ms. Qi opened an account, there were 67 transactions under her trading account, and 229 lots of "93# gasoline (tons)" were sold. Every order contains two opposite orders: buy and sell. During the transaction, his account was forced to close at least 15 times. All the capital invested by Ms. Qi was lost.
From the above facts, we can draw the following conclusions:
1. Open an account at will.
In the case of 24-hour continuous trading, no limit on price fluctuation and leverage of 25-40 times, no matter the exchange, members or salesmen, they did not investigate the basic information and credit status of customers, did not give any risk warning, or even signed a written customer agreement. In order to attract customers to open accounts and save money, salesmen exaggerate their income without revealing risks and expand their business savagely.
Second, transaction price fraud.
According to the Measures for the Administration of Petroleum Prices, the price of crude oil is determined by enterprises with reference to the international market price. The price difference of refined oil is subject to government guidance or government pricing. (a) the retail price and wholesale price of gasoline and diesel, and the supply price of gasoline and diesel for special users such as social wholesale enterprises, railways, transportation, etc. shall be guided by the government; (two) the supply price of gasoline and diesel for the national reserve and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, as well as the ex-factory price of aviation gasoline and aviation kerosene, shall be set by the government. When the moving average price of crude oil in the international market changes by more than 4% for 22 consecutive working days, the domestic refined oil price can be adjusted accordingly. The National Development and Reform Commission sets the maximum retail price of gasoline and diesel in all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) or central cities. Refined oil retail enterprises can independently set specific retail prices without exceeding the maximum retail prices of gasoline and diesel stipulated by the government. So the price of refined oil in China can be said to be controlled by the government. The so-called "quotation" of PetroChina has not been authorized by the government department, nor has it stated the specific international market on which its quotation is based, but its electronic disk software has the function of introducing external trading parameters and generating independent quotations through setting functions. What is even more disturbing is that these electronic disk softwares can be easily obtained in the software market, and they have not passed the safety inspection of any third-party organization, nor have they been filed in the public security department.
3. The nature of the transaction is illegal futures trading.
How to judge whether a transaction constitutes a futures transaction? We should judge from two aspects. 1. Whether it constitutes futures picky in form includes: 1. The subject matter of the transaction is homogeneous or irreplaceable, that is, it belongs to a standardized contract; 2. Publicly traded, that is, sold to the public; 3. Centralized transactions, that is, transactions between multiple buyers and multiple sellers, transactions between the buyer with the lowest bid and the seller with the highest bid, or non-centralized bidding transactions approved by the regulatory authorities; 4. Future delivery; 5. Margin guarantee (the type of margin includes funds), that is, guarantee mechanism transactions; 6. Complete the transaction through hedging. The second is whether it constitutes futures trading in essence. The judgment elements include: 1. The purpose of the transaction is not to transfer the ownership of the goods, and both parties to the transaction do not expect real delivery, but expect to earn the difference profit in the price fluctuation; 2. The trading function is not to promote commodity circulation, but to hedge, find prices and manage investment. If a transaction meets both the above formal and substantive requirements, it can be regarded as a futures transaction.
Based on this, it can be judged that after opening a trading account, Ms. Qi's transaction subject matter is a contract for the delivery of a certain amount of refined oil at a certain point in the future, not the refined oil itself, without physical delivery. What's more, because the minimum delivery volume is set at 500 tons, it is impossible to deliver the spot with the ability of most individual investors. The trading rules of North Petroleum Institute clearly implement margin system, position limit system, strong level system and risk warning system, which has the characteristics of low margin and high leverage. In this kind of transaction, customers' transactions are settled by buying flat and selling flat, so it can be concluded that the purpose of the transaction is not to collect refined oil, but to realize profit through the difference between buyers and sellers. Although Beihou named its trading variety "spot", this does not change the nature of its illegal futures trading.
Articles 4, 6 and 7 of the Regulations on the Administration of Futures Trading stipulate that futures trading shall be conducted at futures exchanges established in accordance with the regulations and other futures trading places approved by the futures regulatory authorities in the State Council or the State Council. It is forbidden to conduct futures trading outside the futures trading places specified in the preceding paragraph. The establishment of a futures exchange must be examined and approved by the the State Council Futures Regulatory Authority. Without the approval of the futures regulatory authority of the State Council or the State Council, no unit or individual may set up a futures trading place or organize futures trading and related activities in any form. Futures exchanges are not for profit. The illegal futures trading platform provided by Beijing Post Office to the public without the business license of the CSRC may even be a party to the direct transaction, acting as both an athlete and a referee, which is suspected of serious violation of the law.
Compared with general spot trading, futures trading is risky and speculative. For example, futures trading can be conducted in the futures market that is not established according to law. Due to the lack of clear regulatory departments and regulatory norms, market price manipulation may lead to market disorder and huge market risks. The futures market, which is not established according to law, can not realize the closed operation of customers' funds because it is not regulated. Investors face great risks such as misappropriation of funds, risky positions at their own risk, fraudulent transactions by their opponents, and the safety of funds and investment interests cannot be effectively protected. Based on this, illegal futures trading should be deemed invalid by the people's court, and the property obtained from the invalid contract should be returned according to law.
In addition, similar trading platforms have appeared in Ningbo, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Shenyang and other places, and their trading mechanisms are similar to those described above. At present, the Beijing court has accepted Ms. Qi's lawsuit according to law. We expect the court to make a fair judgment on this case as soon as possible and safeguard Ms. Qi's legitimate investment rights and interests. Investors who want to know the progress of the case can contact us. We suggest that investors who encounter similar traps actively defend their rights.