In the international market, treasury bond futures is one of the basic financial derivatives with a long history and mature operation. Judging from the operating experience of the treasury bond futures market in mature countries, treasury bond futures have played a certain role in promoting interest rate marketization reform, activating bond spot market transactions, promoting the issuance of treasury bonds, and improving the benchmark interest rate system.
The characteristics of treasury bond futures: treasury bond futures can actively avoid interest rate risk, with low transaction cost, high liquidity and low credit risk;
First, you can actively avoid interest rate risks. As the short selling mechanism is introduced into treasury bond futures trading, traders can actively avoid interest rate risk by using treasury bond futures. The use of treasury bonds futures can quickly complete the adjustment of interest rate risk positions without significantly changing the asset-liability structure, thus reducing operating costs and effectively controlling interest rate risks.
Second, the transaction cost is low. Margin trading of treasury bonds futures can effectively reduce the hedging cost of traders. At the same time, treasury bonds futures adopt centralized matching bidding mode, which has high transaction transparency and reduces the information cost of finding counterparties.
Third, high liquidity. Treasury bond futures trading adopts standardized contract form, and centralized matching trading is carried out on the exchange, with high liquidity.
Fourth, the credit risk is low. In the treasury bond futures trading, both buyers and sellers need to pay the deposit, and in order to prevent the occurrence of default events, the exchange implements the debt-free settlement system on the same day, which effectively reduces the credit risk in the transaction.
Basic functions of treasury bonds futures: Treasury bonds futures, as derivatives of basic interest rates, have the following functions:
First, the function of avoiding interest rate risk. Because the price of treasury bond futures is basically consistent with the price change trend of its subject matter, the asset loss caused by interest rate fluctuation can be avoided through the hedging transaction of treasury bond futures.
Second, the price discovery function. The price discovery function of treasury bond futures is mainly to increase the content of price information and provide expected signals for the construction of yield curve and macro-control.
Third, promote the issuance function of national debt. Treasury bond futures provide hedging tools for underwriters in the treasury bond issuance market, and promote underwriters to actively participate in the primary and secondary markets of treasury bonds.
Fourth, optimize the asset allocation function. Through the leverage effect of trading, treasury bond futures have lower transaction costs, which can facilitate investors to adjust portfolio duration, rationally allocate assets, improve investment income and facilitate cash flow management.
The emergence and development of treasury bond futures market: Treasury bond futures were originally the product of developed countries to avoid interest rate risks and maintain the stability of the financial system. In the 1970s, influenced by the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system and the outbreak of the oil crisis, the economies of major western developed countries fell into stagflation. In order to promote economic development, governments of various countries have successively implemented interest rate marketization policies, resulting in increasingly frequent and intense interest rate fluctuations. Frequent and violent interest rate fluctuations make borrowers and borrowers in the financial market, especially investors holding government bonds, face higher and higher interest rate risks, and the market demand for hedging is increasingly strong, so a convenient and effective interest rate risk management tool is urgently needed. In this context, interest rate futures such as treasury bonds futures first came into being in the United States.
1976 1, CME launched a 90-day treasury bond futures contract, marking the official birth of treasury bond futures. With the continuous development of American economy, especially after1980s, American interest rate rose, which made treasury bond futures trading more active, and more and more institutional investors began to use the treasury bond futures market to avoid risks. Therefore, the trading volume of treasury bonds futures has gradually increased.
What are the major national debt futures in the world? After the United States successfully launched treasury bonds futures, in order to meet the needs of investors to manage interest rate risks, other countries and regions have also launched various treasury bonds futures, and global treasury bonds futures trading has developed rapidly. By the end of 20 12, 23 futures exchanges in 23 countries and regions have launched treasury bond futures products.