What is futures?

Futures is not a commodity, but a standardized tradable contract with cotton, soybeans, oil and other bulk products and financial assets such as grain tickets and bonds as the subject matter. Therefore, the subject matter can be commodities (such as gold, crude oil and agricultural products) or financial instruments. The delivery date of futures can be one week later, one month later, three months later or even one year later. A contract or agreement to buy or sell futures is called a futures contract. The place where futures are bought and sold is called the futures market. Investors can invest or speculate in futures.

Transaction classification

Commodity futures and financial futures. Commodity futures are divided into industrial products (which can be subdivided into metal commodities (precious metals and non-precious metals) and energy commodities), agricultural products and other commodities. Financial futures are mainly traditional financial commodities (tools) such as stock index, interest rate and exchange rate. All kinds of futures trading include options trading.

main feature

The commodity variety, trading unit, contract month, margin quantity, quality, grade, delivery time and delivery place of futures contracts are all established and standardized, and the only variable is price. The standards of futures contracts are usually designed by futures exchanges and listed by national regulatory agencies. Futures contracts are concluded under the organization of futures exchanges and have legal effect, and prices are generated through public bidding in the trading hall of the exchanges; Most foreign countries adopt public bidding, while our country adopts computer trading.

The performance of futures contracts is guaranteed by the exchange, and private transactions are not allowed. Futures contracts can fulfill or cancel contractual obligations through settlement of spot or hedging transactions.

function

Find prices, avoid risks and hedge.