In order to make buyers and sellers have the same bidding basis for the same commodity, the futures exchange standardizes each futures contract to clearly regulate the trading contents of buyers and sellers, which is one of the main reasons for the active futures market.
Futures trading is a centralized trading form of standardized forward contracts. That is to say, the two sides will buy and sell a certain quantity and quality of goods at a certain price at a certain time and place in the future through a futures contract in the futures exchange according to the terms stipulated in the contract. The ultimate goal of futures trading is not the transfer of commodity ownership, but to avoid spot price risk by buying and selling futures contracts.
Historically, futures developed from spot trading. In Antwerp in the 3rd century, Amsterdam in the Netherlands in the17th century, and Osaka in Japan in the18th century, the rudiments of futures trading have appeared. Modern organized futures trading produced Chicago, USA. 1848, the embryonic form of Chicago futures trading. Modern organized futures exchange (CBOT) began to engage in forward trading of agricultural products. In order to avoid the risk of large price fluctuation of agricultural products, farmers, traders and processors have used spot forward contracts to exchange commodities from the beginning, so as to stabilize supply and marketing and reduce the risk of price fluctuation. With the expansion of trading scale, spot forward contracts are used to exchange goods to stabilize supply and marketing and reduce the risk of price fluctuation. With the expansion of trading scale, the trading of spot forward contracts has gradually exposed the disadvantages of animal epidemic writing: First, spot forward contracts have no uniform provisions and are non-standardized contracts, and each transaction requires both parties to sign a new contract, which increases the cost and reduces the transaction efficiency. Second, due to the diversity of long-term content clauses, 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 the forward contract is based on the credit of both parties to the transaction, which is prone to default. 4. The price of the forward contract is not widely representative and cannot be recognized as a reasonable expected price by the market. Therefore, the early Chicago Board of Trade often had trading disputes and default events, which greatly restricted commodities and restricted market development. In order to reduce trading disputes and breach of contract, simplify trading means, enhance contract liquidity and improve market efficiency, Zhijiage Futures Trading introduced standardized futures contract trading at 1865 to replace the original spot forward contract trading, and then introduced performance bond system and unified settlement system.
Compared with spot trading, the main features of futures trading are:
(1) Futures trading is a peace treaty made by the futures exchange.
(2) Futures contracts are standardized contracts. All the terms in the contract, such as quantity and quality of goods, margin ratio, delivery place, delivery method and transaction method, are standardized, and only the price in the contract is a free price formed through competitive transactions in the market.
(3) The physical delivery rate is low. Understanding futures contracts does not necessarily mean fulfilling the obligation of actual trading. At any time before the stipulated delivery date, the buyer and the seller can cancel each other's contract through transactions with the same amount and opposite directions, without fulfilling the obligation of actual delivery. Therefore, the proportion of physical delivery in futures trading is very small, generally less than 5%.
(four) the futures trading margin system. Traders do not need to pay and perform guarantees, and implement strict settlement and delivery system, with little risk of default.