The short seller did not have the subject matter at that time, but he thought that the price of the subject matter would fall in the future.
If his judgment is correct, when executing the futures contract, you can buy the subject matter from the market at a price lower than the contract price when shorting, and transfer it to the bulls to earn the difference.
On the contrary, bulls expect the future price of the subject matter to rise. If his judgment is correct, he receives the subject matter from the short seller at the contract price and sells it in the market to earn the difference.
The futures market is a zero-sum game, that is, one party's gains are equal to the other party's losses.
Futures, whose English name is futures, is completely different from spot. Spot is actually a tradable commodity. Futures are mainly not commodities, but standardized tradable contracts based on some popular products such as cotton, soybeans and oil and financial assets such as stocks and bonds. 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.
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. 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 their contractual obligations through the settlement of spot or hedging transactions.
condition
Minimum fluctuation price: refers to the minimum fluctuation range of the unit price of futures contracts.
Maximum fluctuation limit of daily price: (also known as price limit) means that the trading price of futures contracts shall not be higher or lower than the prescribed price limit within a trading day, and the quotation exceeding this price limit will be deemed invalid and cannot be traded.
Delivery month of futures contract: refers to the delivery month stipulated in the contract.
Last trading day: refers to the last trading day when a futures contract is traded in the contract delivery month.
Futures contract trading unit "hand": Futures trading must be carried out in an integer multiple of "hand", and the number of commodities contracted in each hand of different trading varieties should be specified in the futures contract of that variety.