A: The futures market is a market for buying and selling futures contracts, which are essentially representative symbols of futures commodities. As far as the buying and selling of commodities (including physical commodities and financial commodities) is converted into contract buying and selling, futures contracts are indeed similar to the securities market in terms of securities of related commodities. From the above analysis, we can see that the futures market belongs to the venture capital market, and its business process is the same as that of the stock market. People intervene in the futures market in order to avoid or suffer less losses in spot market transactions, and also to obtain the price difference in futures contracts, which is to exchange money for money. All these show that the futures market is not only a market to communicate commodity exchange, but also a market to communicate currency exchange with different amounts and at different times. Therefore, in a strict sense, the futures market is a financial market. However, the futures market and the securities market are different:

(1) Different basic functions

The basic functions of the securities market are resource allocation and risk pricing; The basic function of futures market is to find prices and avoid risks.

(2) The nature of trading instruments is different.

Stocks, bonds, and money market trading tools are all evidence representing the relationship between personal wealth ownership and debt. Their "value" lies in the fact that the holder can get a certain monetary income within the effective period, so they are physical assets with "intrinsic value" and can be used for mortgage or guarantee. When futures contracts have no "value", no one will buy and sell for hedging and speculation. Therefore, futures contracts have no inherent fixed value, and can neither be used as mortgage and guarantee, nor as reserve assets.

(3) the purpose of the transaction is different

The purpose of securities trading is to transfer the ownership of securities. In the securities market, the final result of all transactions is that the buyer gets the securities he needs, and the seller hands over his own securities in exchange for the currency he needs. Therefore, the securities transaction ends with the transfer of the ownership of the transaction object. The purpose of futures trading is to avoid risks in the spot market or seek investment profits. In the futures market, most of the buyers and sellers don't hold the trading object in the end, so the actual delivery volume of futures contracts only accounts for a small proportion of the trading volume of futures contracts, usually less than 3%.

(4) The market structure is different.

Futures market is not divided into primary market and secondary market like securities market. Therefore, the opposite futures market transactions and subsequent futures hedging transactions are the same in purpose and technology, and it is impossible and unnecessary to distinguish between primary transactions and secondary transactions. In addition, futures trading is also different from stock trading in terms of leverage, risk and whether there is margin.