What does stock index futures mean?
Stock index futures, in short, are tools for buying and selling indexes. The A-share market cannot directly trade the index, but it can be directly traded in the futures market.
So how is the index priced? Take the CSI 500 Index as an example. 200 yuan has 1 cent, and now it is cents. An index is worth about 970 thousand. This does not mean that you need 970,000 yuan to buy it. As long as you pay a deposit of 12%, you can trade, which is about 1 1 0,000 yuan, which is the same as the down payment of 20% for buying a house.
If bullish, you can open more orders and buy indexes. If you are bearish, you can open an empty order, that is, sell an index. You don't need an index to sell an index. As long as you pay the deposit, the exchange can pretend that you have an index to sell.
If you judge the rising and falling direction of the index correctly, one point will earn 200 yuan, otherwise 500 points will lose 200,000 yuan, and your margin 1 10000 yuan will almost be lost. This is a short position.
Generally speaking, stock index futures are similar to stock trading, and they are both games of guessing the ups and downs. It's just that A shares can only guess up and make money, while stock index futures can guess down and make money, and another 8 times leverage is also very exciting.
Futures are delivered on the third Friday of each month. If there is an obvious spread between stock index futures and indexes, then funds will enter arbitrage, buy cheap and sell expensive until the spread disappears.
Finally, let's look at the abbreviation of stock index futures. If stands for Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 stock indexes, ic stands for CSI 500 valuation, and ih stands for SSE 50 stock indexes. The number after the code represents the year and month, such as ih 1906, which is the SSE 50 futures contract due on June 20 19. When you look at the futures market, you usually look at the current month.