Take the stock index of a stock market as an example. Suppose the current stock market index is 1000 points, that is, the current spot "price" of this market index is 1000 points, and now there is an "index futures contract" that expires at the end of February. If most investors in the market are bullish, the futures price of this index may reach 65438+ at the same time. If you think the "price" of this index will exceed 1 100 in the future, you can buy this stock index futures. After that, the index futures continued to rise to a certain price, assuming that it was 1 150 points. At this time, you have two choices, either continue to hold your futures contract or sell the futures at the current new "price", namely 1 150. At this time, you will complete the liquidation and get 50 points. Of course, before the expiration of this index futures, its "price" may also fall, and you can continue to hold or close your position.
On the other hand, suppose you think the stock market index will fall in the future. At this time, you can sell the stock index futures contract as an opening position on the stock index futures. After that, the price of stock index futures fell to 1050, so you can choose to close your position, that is, buy the corresponding "stock index futures contract" to offset the previous opening contract, so you can earn a difference of 50 points.
This kind of trading is stock index futures trading.
But when the stock index futures expire, no one can continue to hold them at this time, because the futures at this time have become "spot" and you must fulfill the delivery.
Delivery of stock index futures: according to the difference between the "price" of your futures contract and the actual "price" of the current spot market, it is equivalent to closing the position at the spot "price" on the delivery date. In the above example, if the 65438+ purchase contract you still hold expires at the end of February, then the contract price point is 1 100. At this time, the settlement price point of the stock spot market index is 1 130 points, so you can get the price difference compensation of 30 points, which means you earn 30 points. On the contrary, if the settlement price of the index is 1050 points, which is 50 points lower than your purchase price, you must take out 50 points to subsidize it, which means you lose 50 points.
Of course, the so-called "points" of earning or losing are meaningless, and these points must be converted into meaningful monetary units. The specific conversion amount is agreed in advance in the stock index futures contract, which is called the contract multiplier. If the contract multiplier of stock index futures is 100 yuan, that is, the value of each point is 100 yuan, then a profit of 30 points means a profit of 3000 yuan.
Suppose the point of stock index futures is 1000, and the value of a contract is 100000 yuan. At present, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong is about 15600, and the contract multiplier is HK$ 50. In this way, the value of a Hong Kong Hang Seng Index futures contract is about HK$ 780,000.