From the historical process, futures trading is developed from spot trading. In Antwerp, Belgium in the13rd century, Amsterdam, the Netherlands in the17th century and Osaka, Japan in the18th century, the embryonic form of futures trading has appeared. Modern organized futures trading originated in Chicago, USA. From 65438 to 0848, Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) began to engage in traders and processors of agricultural products. From the beginning, it used spot forward contracts to trade commodities, so as to stabilize supply and marketing and reduce the risk of price fluctuation. With the expansion of trading scale, spot forward contracts have no unified content and are non-standardized contracts. Every transaction requires both parties to re-sign the contract, which increases the transaction cost and reduces the transaction efficiency. Second, due to the variety of contents and terms of forward contracts, a specific contract cannot be widely recognized, which makes it difficult to transfer the contract smoothly and reduces the liquidity of the contract. Third, the performance of forward contracts is based on the credit of both parties to the transaction, which is prone to default. Fourth, the price of forward contracts is not widely representative and is not a reasonable expected price recognized by the market. Therefore, the early Chicago Board of Trade often had trading disputes and defaults, which greatly restricted commodity trading and restricted market development. In order to reduce trading disputes, simplify trading procedures, enhance contract liquidity and improve market efficiency, Chicago Board of Trade introduced standardized futures contract trading at 1865, replacing the original spot forward contract trading, and then introduced performance bond system and unified settlement system.
The concept and characteristics of stock
With the deepening of economic system reform, China stock market has been developing and improving, and more and more investors are participating in the stock market investment. Stock market investment has become a financial management method that people are willing to take risks, and stocks have naturally become a hot topic of concern to everyone.
What exactly is a stock? Stock is the abbreviation of share certificate, which is a kind of securities issued by a joint-stock company to shareholders as a holding certificate to raise funds and obtain dividends and bonuses. Each share represents the shareholder's ownership of the basic unit of the enterprise. Shares are part of the capital of a joint-stock company and can be transferred, traded or mortgaged at a fixed price. It is the main long-term credit tool in the capital market.
Stocks have three functions.
(1) Stock is the proof of capital contribution. When a natural person or legal person invests in a joint stock limited company, it may obtain shares as proof of capital contribution;
(2) Shareholders prove their shareholder status by the shares they hold, attend the shareholders' meeting of the joint-stock company and express their opinions on the operation of the joint-stock company;
(3) Shareholders participate in the profit distribution of share-issuing enterprises by virtue of their shares, which is commonly referred to as dividends, in order to obtain certain economic benefits.
As a kind of securities, stocks have the following characteristics:
1. A stable stock investment is a long-term investment with no term. Once the stock is bought, as long as the stock issuing company exists, no stock holder can recover the stock, that is, the stock issuing company cannot be required to recover the principal. Similarly, a shareholder's identity and rights and interests cannot be changed, but he can sell his shares through the stock exchange market and transfer them to other investors to recover his original investment.
2. Risk Any kind of investment is risky, and stock investment is no exception.
Whether stock investors can get the expected returns depends on the profitability of enterprises first. Most of the profits are divided, and a small part of the profits are divided. When the company goes bankrupt, it may be wiped out. Secondly, as a trading object, stocks, like commodities, have their own prices. The stock price is not only subject to the operating conditions of enterprises, but also influenced by many factors such as economy, politics, society and even man-made, and it is in a state of constant change, and the phenomenon of ups and downs also occurs from time to time. Although the fluctuation of stock price in the stock market will not affect the operating performance of listed companies, thus affecting dividends and bonuses, the depreciation of stocks will still make investors suffer some losses. Therefore, investors who want to enter the market must be cautious.
3. Responsible shareholders have the right and obligation to participate in the profit distribution of joint-stock companies and bear limited liability.
According to the provisions of the company law, the holders of shares are shareholders of a joint stock limited company. He has the right or through his agent to attend the shareholders' meeting, elect the board of directors and participate in the company's business decisions. The power of shareholders depends on the number of shares they hold. Shareholders holding shares generally have the right to attend the company's shareholders' meeting and have the right to vote, which can also be regarded as the right to participate in management in a sense; Shareholders also have the right to participate in the company's profit distribution, which can be called profit distribution right. Shareholders can claim dividends, creditor's rights and debts from the joint stock company according to their shares. When the company is dissolved or bankrupt, shareholders shall bear limited liability to the company, and shareholders shall bear limited liability to creditors in proportion to their shares. After the creditors' debts are paid off, the shareholders of preferred stock and common stock can also request the company to pay off the remaining assets (i.e. creditor's rights) according to the proportion of the shares they hold, but the preferred stock shareholders have the priority to be repaid to the common stock, and the common stock only has the right of recourse to the remaining assets after the preferred stock is claimed.
4. Liquidity stocks can be transferred, traded, inherited, donated and mortgaged at any time in the stock market, but they cannot be returned.
Therefore, stock is also a highly liquid asset. The transfer of bearer shares, as long as the shares are delivered to the transferee, can realize the legal effect of the transfer; The transfer of registered shares can only be transferred after the seller signs and endorses it. It is precisely because of the strong liquidity of stocks that stocks become an important financing tool and continue to develop. Stock is a concrete form of stock. Not only can a stock be issued and listed with the approval of the relevant state departments, but its face value must have some basic contents. The production procedures, recording contents and recording methods of stocks must be standardized and conform to the provisions of relevant laws and regulations and the articles of association.
In general, the par value of the shares of a listed company shall have the following contents:
1. The full name, registration date and address of the joint stock limited company that issues shares.
2. The total number of shares issued, the number of shares and the amount per share.
3. The face value of the stock and the number of shares it represents.
4. The signature of the chairman or director of the stock issuing company, the signature of the issuance registration institution approved by the competent authority, and the words common stock or preferred stock shall be indicated.
5. Date of issue and stock number. If it is a registered stock, the name of the shareholder shall be stated.
6. Print together with the form for stock transfer.
7. Matters needing attention that the stock issuing company thinks should be stipulated.
For example, indicate the procedures that must be handled when transferring shares, and the registered office and address of shares are the contents of preferred stock priority. Due to the development and application of electronic technology, the issuance and trading of stocks in Shenzhen and Shanghai stock markets in China are carried out by means of electronic computers and electronic communication systems, and the daily trading of listed stocks has become paperless, so the current stocks are just a set of binary numbers managed by electronic computer systems. But legally speaking, all listed stocks must have the above contents. The par value of each share issued in China is one yuan, and the total amount of shares issued is the total share capital of a listed company limited by shares.
Stock exchange markets all over the world are dotted around and become the representatives of general capital markets. The stock market not only reflects the dynamics of the capital market, but also serves as an important reference for the national economic situation. But there are many stocks, and the price of each stock is changing randomly. In order to record, measure and analyze the ins and outs of the stock market, economists use mathematics as a tool to compile various stock price indexes to meet various needs.
Stock index is an important measure to reflect the overall level of stock price changes in the stock market, and it is also the main basis for analyzing and predicting the development trend and then determining investment behavior.
When compiling stock index, the standard reference value (100%) is usually the stock market situation of a representative or all listed companies in the past (base period), and the stock price of a representative or all listed companies in the current period is compared with the standard reference value. Arithmetic average and weighted average are commonly used in concrete calculation.
Arithmetic average method: add the prices of sample stocks and divide them by the number of types of sample stocks to calculate the average value of stock prices.
The formula is as follows:
Arithmetic average of stock prices = (sum of stock prices per share of sampled stocks) ÷ (number of types of sampled stocks)
Then compare the calculated average with the average of the base period obtained by the same method, and then find the percentage to get the current stock price index, namely:
Stock price index = (arithmetic average of current stock price) ÷ (arithmetic average of basic stock price) × 100%
Weighted average method: the numerator is the price of each sample stock multiplied by the total number of issues in the current period, and the denominator is the price of each sample stock multiplied by the total number of issues in the base period. The percentage obtained is the current stock price index, namely:
Stock price index = [∑ (current price of each sample stock × number of issues)] ⊙.
[∑ (the stock price of each sample in the base period× the number of issues) ]× 100%