Futures is a two-way trading mechanism. In futures trading, traders can buy futures contracts as the beginning of futures trading, or they can sell futures contracts as the beginning of futures trading, which is usually called buying more and selling less.

Futures is a zero-sum game. Regardless of the handling fee, if you earn, you will lose, and the money you earn is the money that other investors lose. The essence of futures is to sign long-term contracts with others to buy and sell goods (or stock indexes, foreign exchange, interest rates) in order to achieve the purpose of maintaining value or making money. If futures prices are expected to rise, go long (buy and open positions). When the price rises, close the position, and the difference is the profit. Profit = closing price-opening price. On the other hand, if the expected price falls, short (sell and open a position) and close the position after the price falls. Profit = opening price-closing price.

Take rebar as an example to illustrate the principle of making money by buying more and selling less in futures.

Make more profits: rebar 170 1 contract has a minimum intraday price of 3003 yuan/ton today. When the price falls to the lowest point, investors predict that the price will rebound and can buy and open positions in the market. The closing price is 3057 yuan/ton, 1 hand profit =(3057-3003)× 10=540 yuan.

Short profit: The opening price of rebar 17 10 contract today is 3 138 yuan/ton. If the contract price is expected to fall, it can be sold and opened in the futures market. At the close, the price fell to 3057 yuan/ton, and you can choose to make a profit and close your position. 1 hand profit = (3138-3057) ×10 = 810 yuan.

The above example is ideal. The profitable money corresponds to the money lost by other investors. If the direction is reversed, it is a loss.

After the futures are opened, before the last trading day, they can close their positions at any time during the trading hours, or repeat the trading on the same day. Two-way trading and T+0 trading mechanism greatly improve the flexibility of futures trading.