The futures market in a broad sense includes futures exchanges, clearing houses or settlement companies, brokerage companies and futures traders; The narrow sense of futures market only refers to futures exchanges. The futures exchange is the place to buy and sell futures contracts and the core of the futures market. A mature futures market is equivalent to a completely competitive market to a certain extent, and it is the most ideal market form in economics. Therefore, the futures market is considered to be a higher-level market organization form and an inevitable product of the development of the market economy to a certain stage. The futures market is a place where both parties do not deliver immediately after reaching an agreement or closing a deal, but deliver in a certain period in the future.
The futures market basically consists of four parts, namely
1. Futures Exchange;
2. Futures clearing houses;
3. Futures brokerage company;
4 Futures traders (including hedgers and speculators)
Foreign exchange futures
Futures exchange is a non-profit organization that provides places, facilities, services and trading rules for futures trading. Exchanges generally adopt membership system. The conditions for joining the exchange are very strict, and each exchange has specific regulations. First, you must submit a membership application to the Exchange. The Exchange will investigate the applicant's financial credit status, pass the examination, and only those who meet the requirements can join the membership with the approval of the Board of Directors. The membership seats of an exchange are generally transferable. The highest authority of the exchange is the general meeting of members. The general meeting of members has a board of directors or a board of directors, which is generally elected by the general meeting of members. The board of directors appoints the president of the Exchange to be responsible for the daily administration of the Exchange.
1. Provide an organized and orderly trading place. Ensure the smooth operation of futures trading under the principle of "justice, fairness and openness".
2. Provide an open transaction price.
3. Provide unified trading rules and standards, so that transactions can be conducted in an orderly manner.
4. Provide good communication information service.
5. Provide transaction guarantee and performance guarantee to ensure the transaction.
The exchange implements the membership system, and major decisions on the operation and operation of the exchange are made by all members.
Income comes from membership fees.
Futures clearing house
Today, there are usually three forms of futures clearing houses in different countries:
1. The clearing house belongs to the exchange, and the members of the exchange are also clearing members;
2. The clearing house belongs to the exchange, but only some members of the exchange have strong financial resources to become clearing members;
3. The clearing house is independent of the exchange and becomes a completely independent clearing house.
The functions and functions of futures clearing institutions are mainly:
1. Responsible for the settlement of futures contract transactions;
2. Undertaking futures trading guarantee;
3. Supervise physical delivery;
4. Release market information.
Most futures settlement institutions implement membership system. Clearing members must pay the full margin and deposit it in the clearing house to ensure the risk control of the futures market by the clearing house. The highest authority of a futures clearing institution is the board of directors (council). The president is in charge of daily work.
Futures brokerage company
A futures brokerage company (or brokerage firm) is an enterprise legal person that conducts futures trading on behalf of customers and provides related futures trading services. When trading futures on behalf of customers, a certain commission is charged. As an intermediary organization of futures trading activities, it plays a very important role in the composition of futures market.
On the one hand, it is a bridge between the exchange and many traders, which broadens and improves the service function of the exchange;
On the other hand, it provides financial guarantee to the exchange for traders to engage in trading activities. The internal institutions of futures brokerage companies generally include settlement department, deposit department, credit department, business department, information department, spot settlement department and research department. Standardized brokerage companies should have a sound risk management system, abide by national laws and policies, obey the supervision of government regulatory authorities, abide by professional ethics, safeguard the overall interests of the industry, strictly distinguish between self-operated and agency businesses, strictly manage customers, and have high-quality brokers.
Futures trader
According to the purpose of participating in futures trading. There are basically two kinds of people: hedgers and speculators.
Hedger
The purpose of this kind of people engaged in futures trading is to use the futures market for hedging transactions, so as to reduce the risks brought by price fluctuations and ensure the normal profits of production and operation. People who do this kind of hedging are generally producers, traders, real users and so on.
speculator
Speculators participate in futures trading for the opposite purpose to hedgers. They are willing to take the risk of price fluctuation. Its purpose is to get more profits with a small amount of money. Speculation in futures exchanges can be said to be varied and varied, and its practice is far more complicated than hedging. In the futures market, without the participation of speculators, its two functions of avoiding risks and finding prices cannot be realized. Speculators participating in trading can increase the liquidity of the market and act as a "lubricant".
arbitrager
In addition, there is another trader in the futures market, namely the arbitrageur, which refers to making money by buying and selling at the same time by taking advantage of the unreasonable price relationship between the stock index futures market and the stock market, as well as between different markets, different varieties and different maturities of the stock index futures.
An institution or individual that benefits from the price difference.
Option market, English: option market; select
Exchange. The market where options contracts are traded is also: Options Exchange.
Exchange). Option trading refers to the right to buy a specific commodity at an agreed price within a specific time. The most common options transactions are foreign exchange, indexes and commodity options contracts. Option is an important concept in modern finance, which has very important application value in practice. Option market is an important part of modern financial market.
Option trading began in the American and European markets in the late18th century. Due to the imperfect system and other factors, the development of option trading has been suppressed. In the early 1920s, put/call options traders were professional options traders. In the process of trading, they did not quote continuously, but only when the price change was obviously beneficial to them. This kind of option trading is not universal and easy to transfer, and the liquidity of the market is greatly limited, so this trading system is frustrated. Until the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) opened on April 26th, 1973, the above problems were solved. The relevant terms of option contracts, including contract quantity, expiration date and finalized price, are gradually standardized. At first, only 16 call option was issued.