Commodity futures refer to futures contracts with physical commodities as the subject matter, mainly including agricultural products futures, metal futures and energy futures.

(1) Agricultural products futures

The Birth of Chicago Board of Trade 1848.

(2) Metal futures

The earliest metal futures trading was born in Britain. The London Metal Exchange was established at 1876, which is the first exchange to trade metal futures. Today, the futures price of the London Metal Exchange is still a barometer of the international non-ferrous metal market. At present, the main business varieties are copper, tin, lead, zinc, aluminum, nickel and silver.

American metal futures appeared later than Britain. The New York Mercantile Exchange was founded in 1933, which was formed by the merger of leather, raw silk, rubber and metal exchanges. Trading varieties include gold, silver, copper and aluminum. Among them, the gold futures contract introduced by 1974 had a certain impact on the international futures market in the 1970s and 1980s.