1. Silver futures refer to futures contracts with the silver price as the subject matter at a certain point in the future. Silver futures contracts are standardized futures contracts, which are formulated by the corresponding futures exchanges. The detailed silver specifications, silver quality and delivery date are clearly stipulated above.
2. Silver option refers to the holder's right to buy or sell silver at an agreed time, at an agreed price and at a certain consideration according to the contract.
Silver futures and silver options belong to silver derivative trading products. What are the differences and characteristics between the two products? Should individual investors choose silver futures or silver options?
1, the investment threshold of silver option is low.
The object of silver futures trading is silver contracts with various maturities provided by the futures exchange, and the quotation is provided in RMB. The silver futures trading unit of Shanghai Futures Exchange is 15 kg/lot, and the minimum change unit is 1 yuan/kg; The trading unit of the silver futures standard contract is each lot 15kg, and the delivery unit is 30kg per warehouse receipt. Delivery shall be made in integral multiples of each warehouse receipt, and the daily transaction shall be limited to 5%. "Silver Option" deals with spot silver in the international market, and the quotation is provided in US dollars. Individuals need to pay a certain option fee to invest in silver options, and the term of options provided by banks includes six kinds ranging from one week to six months. There is no limit to the rise and fall of silver option investment.
2, buy up and buy down.
Silver futures and silver options are essentially buying and selling a forward contract, agreeing to buy or sell a certain amount of silver at a certain price in the future. For individual investors, neither of these two businesses can be actually delivered, so the way to make a profit is to use the change of contract price to obtain the expected annualized expected income from the spread. Compared with spot trading, these two trading methods have the function of leverage amplification, and they can choose bullish silver or bearish silver in contract selection, so their trading is suitable for a wider market environment.
3. Be alert to risks.
As two different products, silver futures and silver options face different investment risks. When individual customers invest in silver futures, they will face the risk of being forced to close their positions because of insufficient margin balance. The customer may lose all the funds in the account. Because the price change of domestic silver futures market is influenced by the fluctuation of international market, and the price of silver in new york market often fluctuates greatly at night, it is inevitable that the price trend of domestic silver futures exchange will rise by leaps and bounds, and the risk of investors holding positions will increase. When trading silver options, the customer, as the option buyer, has determined the biggest loss at the beginning of trading, that is, the option fee paid to the bank. No matter how the silver price changes in the future, the biggest loss of customers has been determined. As long as the market fluctuation is beneficial to the customer within the validity period of the option (including the expiration date), the customer can choose to sell the option and lock in the profit without worrying about large reverse fluctuation.
4. Silver options are suitable for medium-term positions.
Combined with the international market, silver derivatives transactions often combine silver futures and silver options. With the maturity of the domestic silver derivatives market, individual investors can try to intervene in the trading of silver futures or silver options. Relatively speaking, silver options have higher investment flexibility and leverage, and are more suitable for use when the price of silver fluctuates greatly, and are suitable for investors who intend to hold silver in the medium term.