Palm oil is an excellent futures investment product because of its many influencing factors and rich investment themes. The main factors affecting the price of palm oil are the changes in the demand for palm oil in the domestic market, the weather and harvest in Malaysia and Indonesia, the changes in the demand for palm oil in the international market, the shipping situation exported to China and the exchange rate changes. In addition, frequent weather and geological disasters in Southeast Asia will also have a regular impact on palm oil prices, and local political and policy changes in exporting countries will also have a greater impact on palm oil prices. Judging from the change of use, the increase of palm oil usage in recent years has directly affected its market price. At present, with the increase of energy prices, palm oil, as one of the main raw materials of biodiesel, has a rapid growth in demand, and its price is increasingly affected by international energy prices such as crude oil.

Palm oil fluctuates greatly, with frequent intraday price fluctuations and many investment opportunities. Since the beginning of this year, Malaysian palm oil futures prices have risen by 50%, during which there have been two major adjustments. This characteristic of great fluctuation is suitable for long-term investors and trend investors. And its intraday price fluctuates frequently, which is favored by short-term trading investors.

Palm oil also has more cross-species and cross-market arbitrage opportunities. Palm oil is the largest variety in the international oil market in terms of output, consumption and trade volume. Because its consumption has a certain substitution relationship with soybean oil and rapeseed oil, its price fluctuation has a great influence on soybean oil and rapeseed oil. Soybean oil and rapeseed oil are the vane of the international edible oil market and have a great correlation with related varieties. At present, domestic soybean oil and rapeseed oil futures have been listed, which will form a complete series of oil futures with palm oil, bringing rich cross-species arbitrage opportunities to investors.

Palm oil futures trading threshold is low, suitable for general public investment. The transaction fee charged by the palm oil futures exchange shall not exceed 6 yuan/lot. According to the spot price of palm oil of 8 100 yuan/ton, the transaction cost of each palm oil contract (10 ton) is less than one ten thousandth of the contract value. The low handling fee means more investment opportunities for investors. According to the minimum change price of palm oil 2 yuan/ton, if the price changes by one price, the value of palm oil will change by 20 yuan, and the first-hand trading cost will not exceed 12 yuan. After adding the handling fee of the futures brokerage company, investors in the right direction will make a profit.

In addition, the domestic demand for palm oil is strong and there are many operating enterprises, which will provide favorable conditions for the continuous increase of the liquidity of palm oil varieties. Hao, deputy general manager of Zhangjiagang Oil Transportation Co., Ltd. said that in recent years, the demand for palm oil in China has been increasing, the import scale has been expanding, and the palm oil market is in the expansion stage. The rapid growth of spot demand makes the spot trading of palm oil very active, and many trading companies are involved. At present, there are nearly 10,000 palm oil trading enterprises in China, which has laid a very good foundation for active palm oil futures trading.

However, due to many factors affecting palm oil prices and large fluctuations, investors are faced with higher investment risks. For palm oil futures varieties, investors should pay special attention to weather and geological disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes in Southeast Asia and the local political situation, guard against market risks brought by unexpected factors, and at the same time do a good job in fund management and control corresponding risks.