Oil futures refers to the standard compound formulated by the exchange to deliver a certain amount and quality of oil at a specific time and place in the future, and is a variety of futures trading. Futures trading usually does not involve the transfer of physical ownership, but only the transfer of ownership of futures contracts.

The oil futures market is developed on the basis of the oil spot market. 1978165438+10, the New York Mercantile Exchange, USA, launched the contract of No.2 heating oil and No.6 heavy fuel oil, and chose new york port as the delivery place, which was a success in one fell swoop and created a precedent for oil futures.

Intercontinental exchanges in the New York Mercantile Exchange and London are successful oil futures exchanges. Other oil exchanges include Singapore Exchange, Tokyo Industrial Products Exchange and Dubai Commodity Exchange.

(1) the New York Mercantile Exchange. Founded in 1827, it is the largest exchange in the world engaged in futures trading of financial commodities, platinum series metal products and petroleum products. From 65438 to 0978, the New York Mercantile Exchange successfully listed the first historic energy futures contract-heating oil futures contract. 1983, the exchange launched the world's first crude oil futures contract. Since then, it has become the most important energy futures options trading place in the world (Figure 9. 1).

② London Intercontinental Exchange. Its predecessor, London International Petroleum Exchange, was founded in 1980, which was developed after the United States. As London is one of the centers of European oil trade, London's futures trading has a long history and superior geographical position, and the international oil exchange has rapidly grown into the second largest energy exchange in the world. In June, 20001,the international oil exchange was acquired by the American Intercontinental Exchange and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Intercontinental Exchange.

(3) Singapore Exchange. Formerly known as Singapore Gold Exchange, it was established in 1978. Singapore is the world's major oil transshipment and refining center. Its unique and superior geographical conditions and huge refining capacity make it a hot spot of world oil trading and one of the important energy trading centers in Asia and even the world.

(4) Tokyo Industrial Products Exchange. Japan's oil futures started late, and the first oil futures contract was launched in 1999. But then it developed rapidly.

Oil futures trading has three functions: price discovery, hedging and risk transfer.