As a kind of futures trading, financial futures has the general characteristics of futures trading, but compared with commodity futures, its contract subject matter is not physical goods, but traditional financial goods, such as securities; Currency, exchange rate, interest rate, etc. Financial futures trading appeared in the American market in the 1970s. 1972 international currency futures trading began in the international money market of Chicago Mercantile Exchange. 1975 Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched real estate mortgage bond futures trading, marking the beginning of financial futures trading. At present, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, new york Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange almost trade futures of various financial instruments, such as currency, interest rate and stock index. Previously, financial futures trading has been ahead of commodity futures trading in many aspects, accounting for more than 80% of the trading volume of the entire futures market. It has become a successful example of western financial innovation.

There are many kinds of futures contracts related to finance. There are three main types of varieties developed before:

(1) Interest rate futures refer to futures contracts with interest rates as the subject matter. The earliest interest rate futures in the world are the mortgage-backed futures of the National Mortgage Association of the United States launched by Chicago Mercantile Exchange 1975. Interest rate futures mainly include long-term interest rate futures with long-term treasury bonds as the subject matter and short-term interest rate futures with two-month short-term deposit rates as the subject matter.

(2) Currency futures refer to futures contracts with exchange rates as the subject matter. Currency futures are produced to meet the needs of foreign trade and financial business in various countries. In order to avoid exchange rate risk, the international money market of Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched the first currency futures contract at 1972, and it was successful. After that. Britain, Australia and other countries have successively established currency futures trading markets, and currency futures trading has become a worldwide trading variety. In the past, the currencies that participated in currency futures contracts mainly included British pound, US dollar, German mark, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, French franc, Australian dollar and European monetary unit.

(3) Stock index futures refer to futures contracts with the stock index as the subject matter. Stock index futures is the hottest and fastest-growing futures transaction in the former financial futures market. Stock index futures do not involve the delivery of the stock itself, its price is calculated according to the stock index, and the contract is delivered in the form of cash settlement.