1. What is futures?
Futures and spot are completely different. Spot is actually a tradable commodity. Futures are mainly not commodities, but standardized tradable contracts based on some popular products such as cotton, soybeans and oil and financial assets such as stocks and bonds. Therefore, the subject matter can be commodities (such as gold, crude oil and agricultural products) or financial instruments.
Second, the main characteristics of futures
1. The commodity variety, trading unit, contract month, margin, quantity, quality, grade, delivery time and delivery place of a futures contract are all established and standardized, and the only variable is the price. The standards of futures contracts are usually designed by futures exchanges and listed by national regulatory agencies.
2. The futures contract is concluded under the organization of the futures exchange and has legal effect, and the price is generated by public bidding in the trading hall of the exchange; Most foreign countries adopt public bidding, while our country adopts computer trading.
3. The performance of futures contracts is guaranteed by the exchange, and private transactions are not allowed. Futures contracts can fulfill or cancel their contractual obligations through the settlement of spot or hedging transactions.
Third, the development prospects of financial futures
On April 6, 20 10, the first batch of four Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 stock index futures contracts were listed and traded, which means that China's financial futures once again entered the capital market stage after being silent for nearly 15 years.
1. For a long time, the futures profit model of China stock market was single. Investors buy stocks, and only when the stock price rises can investors make money. The lack of short-selling mechanism also makes domestic stock market manipulation prevalent. Bankers and some large institutions use their capital and information advantages to push up the stock price, which makes the stock price deviate from its normal value range for a long time, which will lead to the accumulation of systemic risks in the stock market and increase the risks faced by stock investors. Stock index futures not only enrich investors' asset portfolio, but also prevent the accumulation of systemic risks. Stock index futures provide an internal balance mechanism, which makes the stock index fluctuate within a more reasonable range.
2. Since the listing of stock index futures, the consistency between the fluctuation of futures index and the proportion of mature trading positions fully reflects the characteristics of mature markets. The participation rate of investors in opening accounts has increased from the initial 50% to the current 89%, and the volatility of the underlying index has dropped to a record high. During this period, all contracts have been running smoothly and there has never been an expiration date effect. Various phenomena show that the domestic financial futures market is developing steadily.