Stock index futures, abbreviated as SPIF in English, are full-name stock price index futures, which can also be called stock price index futures and futures index. It refers to the standardized futures contract with the stock price index as the subject matter. Both parties agree that at a future date, they can buy and sell the underlying index according to the size of the stock price index determined in advance, and settle the difference in cash after the expiration.
As a type of futures trading, stock index futures trading has basically the same characteristics and processes as ordinary commodity futures trading.
Stock index futures are a kind of futures, which can be roughly divided into two categories, commodity futures and financial futures.
The essence of stock index futures trading is a process in which investors transfer their expected risk of the whole stock market price index to the futures market, and the risk is offset by the trading operations of investors who have different judgments on the stock market trend.
It belongs to futures trading like commodity futures trading, except that the object of stock index futures trading is stock index, which is based on the change of stock index and settled in cash. There are no real stocks on both sides of the transaction, only stock index futures contracts can be bought and sold at any time.
From the stock characteristics, the research methods of the two futures are quite different because of the different factors affecting the stock index spot and the commodity spot. In order to analyze the trend of commodity futures, investors need to conduct an in-depth investigation on the supply and demand situation that affects the spot trend of commodities. It is very important to choose a good investment platform. For stock index futures, investors need to pay more attention to the macro-economy, industry trends and the trend of heavyweights that have a great influence on the spot trend of stock indexes.
In terms of futures characteristics, the main difference between stock index futures and commodity futures lies in the different settlement methods of maturity. When a commodity futures contract expires, it must be delivered in kind, with one party paying and the other delivering. Due to the particularity of stock index "spot"-stock index, stock index futures introduced by countries all over the world are delivered in cash. The general practice is to take the index-weighted spot price some time before the closing of the last trading day as the settlement price of the open index futures contract.