Short futures need to sell standard futures contracts at the price when the commodity price is expected to go down, and then buy them after the futures price goes down to earn the difference. Because futures predict the future price of commodities, we buy and sell commodity contracts delivered at a specific time in the future, so we only need to buy and sell them before the futures expire.

Short selling refers to selling standard contracts at prices that are expected to fall in the future, and buying them after the market falls to make a profit.

Futures implement a margin mechanism, trading the standard contract of the commodity rather than the commodity itself. Therefore, only a certain margin is needed in futures, and goods can be bought and sold directly as needed. Short selling is the operation of selling commodity contracts directly when the expected commodity prices fall.

Because we are selling commodity contracts for delivery at a specific time in the future, we only need to fulfill the contracts before the expiration date, and there is no need to have corresponding contracts when selling. Means of performance are divided into hedging and delivery. Hedging refers to buying equal contracts to close positions, and delivery refers to taking out qualified physical objects.

Simply put, futures trading involves three things: a contract, buying (contract or actual commodity) and selling (contract or actual commodity).

If you are the buyer in the contract, selling (contract or actual goods) will complete a profit and loss transaction after the contract is performed, while if you are the seller in the contract, you must buy (contract or actual goods) or sell what you own before or during the contract performance, and you will also complete a profit and loss transaction. The deposit (usually 00% of the transaction amount of 65438+) is used to ensure that the buyer must buy at the contract price and the seller must sell at the contract price during the contract period.

To put it bluntly, shorting futures is to be a seller in the contract and want to complete the trading behavior of selling high and buying low.

Take soybean meal as an example, let's make a simulated transaction of short futures. The flow of this transaction is like this. You agree to a contract first (no matter who you sign the contract with). The price agreed in this contract is 3800 yuan/ton (you are the seller), and the contract has a term, such as six months.

In these six months, if the price of soybean meal drops to 3,500 yuan/ton, and if you are the seller in the contract, it has been stipulated in your contract that you can perform this contract at the price of 3,800 yuan/ton at any time in these six months, then you can buy soybean meal or contract in the market at the price of 3,500 yuan/ton and sell it to the buyer in the contract, so that you can complete a short transaction.