Oil futures have developed for 28 years since 1978 came into being. During this period, with the ups and downs of international oil prices, oil futures have also developed rapidly and become the largest commodity futures in the global futures market. Compared with other commodities, although the history of oil futures trading is short, due to the role and characteristics of the oil industry in the world economy, oil futures prices have become a barometer to measure the changes of the world economy together with gold prices, interest rates and Dow Jones Industrial Average.
As early as 1974 after the first oil crisis, new york Cotton Exchange and Commodity Exchange of the United States launched crude oil contracts, C-class marine fuel oil contracts and gas oil contracts, but these contracts were not listed because the delivery place was chosen in Amsterdam, which was far from the United States, and the oil price was relatively stable at that time. Later, after careful planning, at 1978 1 1, the New York Mercantile Exchange, USA, launched the contract for heating oil No.2 and heavy fuel oil No.6, and chose the delivery place in new york Port, USA, which was a success in one fell swoop and created a precedent for oil futures. On March 30th, 1983, the New York Mercantile Exchange launched the American West Texas Intermediate Oil Futures Trading Contract, which also achieved great success. Since then, oil futures trade has developed rapidly.
The advantages of oil futures market are as follows: first, futures overcome the shortcomings of unstable spot and forward contracts and inaccurate prices; Second, the functions of futures price discovery, hedging, risk transfer and optimal allocation are popular; Third, the futures market is strictly managed, the "rules of the game" are transparent, and the market liquidity is large, leaving participants with a lot of room for operation.
At present, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), British International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Tokyo Industrial Products Exchange (TOCOM) are all successful oil futures exchanges. The full play of market functions has been widely recognized by spot traders and investors in various countries, and it is playing an increasingly important role in international spot trade.
The New York Mercantile Exchange the New York Mercantile Exchange, founded in 1827, is the world's largest exchange engaged in futures trading of financial commodities, platinum series metal products and petroleum products. From 65438 to 0978, the New York Mercantile Exchange successfully listed the first historic energy futures contract-heating oil futures contract. Since then, it has become the most important trading place for energy futures options in the world.
In the 1970s, the sharp fluctuation of oil prices brought great risks to the economies of western countries, and related derivatives were urgently needed to avoid risks. In June1978165438+10/4, the New York Mercantile Exchange launched heating oil futures trading. After two years of listing, the trading volume of the contract rose rapidly and was a great success. 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and 1980 Iran-Iraq War led to extremely violent fluctuations in world oil prices. A large number of spot enterprises have realized the function of maintaining the value of the futures market and used the futures market to avoid risks. NYMEX's heating oil futures are scientific in both contract design and rule making, attracting a large number of hedgers to participate. At the same time, the sharp fluctuation of oil prices also provides a good profit space for market speculators. Therefore, since 1980s, NYMEX's oil futures have achieved great success, and its trading volume has increased year by year, making it an important futures product in the world.
NYMEX's heating oil futures trading volume was 65,438+0. In 982, NYMEX launched the world's first crude oil futures contract-light crude oil futures contract. Because it is based on the famous American West Texas Intermediate crude oil, it is also widely called the West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) futures contract. West Texas Intermediate crude oil, British Brent crude oil and Middle East crude oil are also called the three benchmark crude oils in the world. In the United States, a relatively developed spot market system has been formed, and long-term trade is very active. Therefore, the introduction of light crude oil futures (WTI) by NYMEX immediately attracted the participation of oil spot traders, and the transaction scale rose rapidly, and its price became an important pricing basis for global crude oil spot trade. In 2004, the New York Mercantile Exchange traded 52.88 million WTI crude oil.
NYMEX's light crude oil (WTI) futures trading volume is the largest commodity futures in the world.
From 65438 to 0986, the New York Mercantile Exchange continued to expand energy futures and introduced unleaded gasoline futures contracts. Unleaded gasoline has become active in recent years after experiencing the silence in the initial stage of listing, and the trading scale has risen rapidly. In 2004, the contract sold 6.5438+0.278 million lots, with an average daily turnover of about 5.65438+0.365.438+0.5 lots, which is similar to the heating oil futures contract. 1990, NYMEX launched natural gas futures trading, which also achieved great success. In 2004, the turnover was17.44 million, which is an important energy variety of NYMEX after WTI crude oil futures. In recent years, NYMEX launched a futures contract with British Brent crude oil as the transaction target, which further enriched NYMEX's energy variety structure by cash delivery.
The international oil exchange, the international oil futures market, was established in 1980 and developed after the United States. As London is one of the centers of European oil trade, London's futures trading has a long history and superior geographical position, and the international oil exchange has rapidly grown into the second largest energy exchange in the world. 1981April, London international petroleum exchange launched heavy diesel oil futures trading, with the contract specification of100t per lot and the minimum price change of 25 cents/ton. Heavy diesel oil is very similar to American heating oil in quality standard. This contract is the first energy futures contract in Europe. After listing, it was relatively successful, and the transaction volume has been rising steadily. In 2004, the transaction volume reached 9.36 million lots. On June 23rd, 1988, IPE launched Brent crude oil futures contract, one of the three international benchmark crude oils. IPE's Brent crude oil futures contract was a great success after listing, and quickly surpassed light diesel oil futures to become the most active contract on the exchange. In 2004, IPE's Brent crude oil futures reached 25.46 million lots, ranking second in the global energy futures category. Brent futures price has become an important reference for international oil spot trade price.
IPE Brent crude oil futures trading volume Singapore Exchange Singapore International Financial Exchange was formerly the Singapore Gold Exchange, which was established in 1978. From 65438 to 0989, the first energy futures contract of Singapore International Finance Exchange, the high-sulfur fuel oil futures contract, was listed and achieved great success. Singapore is the world's major oil transshipment and refining center, and its unique and superior geographical conditions and huge refining capacity make it a hot spot in world oil trading. Singapore International Financial Exchange has quickly become one of the important energy trading centers in Asia and even the world.
Japan's oil futures started late in Tokyo Commodity Exchange, and the first oil futures contract was launched at the latest 1999. 1999, TOCOM launched gasoline and kerosene futures, and the turnover in that year reached10.65 million lots and 3.62 million lots respectively. 200 1, the middle east oil futures contract was launched. The contract takes Middle East oil as the transaction target, and the contract specification is 1 1,000 barrels per hand, and cash delivery is adopted. The settlement price for delivery is the daily average transaction price of crude oil between Dubai and Oman provided by the international authority P 1atts.
Middle East crude oil, as the main oil producing area in the world, is also one of the three benchmark crude oils in the world, with the same name as Brent in the North Sea and West Texas Intermediate. About 70% of the crude oil used in the Asia-Pacific region comes from the Middle East. Under the good spot background, TOCOM's Middle East oil futures have achieved initial results. In 2004, TOCOM traded 23.65 million lots of gasoline futures, 6.5438+0304 million lots of kerosene futures and 2.28 million lots of Middle East crude oil futures. Before the listing of oil futures, Japan's oil spot market has been basically liberalized, and all oil companies can import and operate oil, laying a good market foundation for the operation of oil futures.