As a futures commodity, it must generally have the following characteristics:

(1) Futures commodities must be commodities that can be stored and transported for a long time;

(2) Futures commodities must be commodities whose quality, grade and specifications can be easily divided. As for those commodities whose varieties are too complicated and whose technical performance is very different and difficult to standardize, they are not suitable as futures commodities because futures contracts are standardized;

(3) Futures commodities must be commodities with large trading volume and easily fluctuating prices. Only these commodities need to enter the futures market, because the traders who actually operate these commodities need to hedge with the help of the futures market. Avoid price risk. At the same time, only these commodities can attract a large number of speculators to participate in futures trading, thus increasing the liquidity of the futures market;

(4) Futures commodities must be commodities with many buyers and sellers. Because only through this commodity can many buyers and sellers concentrate in an open competition futures market, and through open competition, many factors affecting supply and demand can converge into an authoritative futures price. On the contrary, commodities that are easily monopolized by buyers or sellers should not enter the futures market.

Commodity futures trading is the sale of "standardized contracts" (namely "futures contracts") representing specific commodities.

In other words, commodities that meet the above characteristics can become commodity futures.