Judging from the historical process. Futures trading is developed from spot trading. In Antwerp, Belgium in the13rd century, Amsterdam, the Netherlands in the17th century and Osaka, Japan in the18th century, the embryonic form of futures trading has appeared. Modern organized futures trading originated in Chicago, USA. 1848, Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) began to engage in forward trading of agricultural products. In order to avoid the risk of sharp fluctuation of agricultural products prices, farmers, agricultural products traders and processors have adopted spot forward contracts for commodity exchange from the beginning to stabilize supply and marketing and reduce the risk of price fluctuation. With the expansion of trading scale, some disadvantages in spot forward contract trading are gradually exposed. First, the spot forward contract is not standardized, and each transaction requires both parties to re-sign, which increases the transaction cost and reduces the transaction efficiency. Second, due to the variety of contents and terms of forward contracts, a specific contract cannot be widely recognized, which makes it difficult to transfer the contract smoothly and reduces the liquidity of the contract. Third, the performance of forward contracts is based on the credit of both parties to the transaction, which is prone to default. Fourth, the price of forward contracts is not widely representative and is not a reasonable expected price recognized by the market. Therefore, the early Chicago Board of Trade often had trading disputes and defaults, which greatly restricted commodity trading and restricted market development. In order to reduce trading disputes, simplify trading procedures, enhance contract liquidity and improve market efficiency, Chicago Board of Trade introduced standardized futures contract trading at 1865, replacing the original spot forward contract trading, and then introduced performance bond system and unified settlement system. ?
What is a futures exchange? ?
A futures exchange is a place that specializes in trading futures contracts. Generally speaking, it is a membership system, that is, it is jointly established by members, and each member enjoys the same rights and obligations. Exchange members have the right to directly participate in the transactions of the exchange, and must abide by the rules of the exchange, pay membership fees and fulfill their due obligations. ?
Membership futures exchange is a non-profit-making economic organization, which mainly relies on collecting transaction fees to maintain the expenses of trading facilities and employees. The savings can only be used for expenses directly related to the transaction, and shall not be used for other investments or profit distribution. The purpose of the futures exchange is to provide facilities and services for futures trading. It does not own any commodities, buy or sell futures contracts or participate in the formation of futures prices. ?