1, in short, futures is equivalent to: talking about buying and selling now, signing a contract, and agreeing to cash the contract at some time in the future.

2. Futures trading is a margin system, which requires cost, and the cost is about 6% to 12% of the total value. That is, if the total value of a commodity is 654.38+ million, you only need to pay 654.38+ million (the margin ratio is 654.38+00%) to get the trading right.

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Let me quote the book Introduction to Futures Trading to explain the concept of futures to you:

What is futures trading?

Futures trading is the natural result of the development of trade forms. Historically, with the production and exchange of human society, commodity currency exchange relations and various forms of trade activities have emerged. Generally speaking, trade activities can be divided into two categories: spot trade and futures trade.

Spot trading is a commodity currency transaction with one hand paying and one hand delivering. The "cash on delivery" mentioned here not only refers to the situation that the money and goods have been transshipped and the payment has been settled. Spot transactions include barter transactions, spot transactions (clearing currency and goods) and forward transactions. Generally speaking, spot forward transactions need to sign spot contracts. As an agreement, the spot contract clearly stipulates the rights and obligations of both parties to the transaction, including the quality, quantity, price and delivery date of the goods traded by both parties. After the contract is signed, the buyer and the seller must strictly perform the contract. During the contract period, if the market situation develops towards the party that is not conducive to the transaction, then this party cannot breach the contract. In addition, if one party to the transaction is short of funds or has an accident, it may make it difficult to perform the contract. Futures trading is not like this. The object of futures trading is not a concrete object, but a unified "standard contract", that is, futures contract. After the transaction is completed, the ownership of the goods has not really transferred. During the contract period, either party to the transaction can transfer the contract in time without the consent of others. Performance can be achieved by physical delivery or hedging futures contracts.

The ultimate goal of futures trading is not the transfer of commodity ownership, which is different from the buying and selling in the spot market. In the futures market, the biggest headache for futures traders is that a truck of soybeans is delivered to the door. When buying and selling futures contracts, some people want to speculate for profit, while others want to avoid price risks. Futures trading is very attractive to investors who want to profit from market price fluctuations, or to producers and operators who want to protect themselves from drastic price changes.

6. 1. 1.2 futures contract

Speaking of contracts, people naturally think that contracts are just a piece of paper with numbers printed on it. It is true that futures contracts do involve a lot of documents and paperwork, but futures contracts are not a piece of paper. A futures contract is a legally binding agreement reached through a futures exchange, that is, a contract to buy or sell a commodity in the future. Expressed in terms, a futures contract refers to a standardized contract made by a futures exchange, which promises to deliver a certain quantity and quality of physical or financial goods at a specific time and place in the future. The standardized terms of futures contracts generally include:

(1) Transaction quantity and unit terms. The futures contract of each commodity stipulates a unified and standardized quantity and unit of quantity, which are collectively called "trading units". For example, Dalian Commodity Exchange stipulates that the trading unit of soybean futures contract is 10 ton. That is to say, when you buy and sell soybean futures contracts on Dalian Commodity Exchange, you should start with 10 ton, which is 1 lot as far as the futures market is concerned, and it is the smallest trading unit. You can't buy 5 tons or sell 8 tons of soybeans in the futures market.

(2) Quality and grade terms. Commodity futures contracts stipulate unified and standardized quality grades, and generally adopt the commodity quality grade standards formulated by the state. For example, the soybean futures delivery standard of Dalian Commodity Exchange adopts the national standard.

(3) Terms of delivery place. Futures contracts specify a standardized and unified delivery warehouse for the physical delivery of futures transactions to ensure the normal delivery of physical objects. Dalian is one of the important grain distribution centers in China, and its warehousing industry is very developed. At present, the designated delivery warehouse of Dalian Commodity Exchange is located in Dalian.

(4) delivery terms. Commodity futures contracts specify the month of physical delivery. At the beginning of commodity futures trading, the first thing you notice is that each commodity has several different contracts, and each contract represents a certain month, such as 1999 1 1 soybean contract, and soybean contract in May 2000.

(5) the lowest price change clause. Refers to the minimum allowable range of changes in the quotations of buyers and sellers in futures trading. The price change of each quotation must be an integer multiple of the minimum change price. The minimum change price of soybean futures contract in Dalian Commodity Exchange is 1 yuan/ton. In other words, when you buy and sell soybean futures, it is impossible to have a price of 2 188.5 yuan/ton.

(6) Price restriction clauses. The transaction price of a futures contract on a certain trading day cannot be higher or lower than the settlement price of the previous trading day. For example, Dalian Commodity Exchange stipulates that the price limit of soybean futures is 3% of the settlement price of the previous trading day.

(7) Terms of the last trading day. Refers to the deadline for futures contracts to stop trading. Every futures contract has a certain month limit. On a certain day in the contract month, the trading of the contract will be stopped and the physical delivery will be prepared. For example, Dalian Commodity Exchange stipulates that the last trading day of soybean futures is the tenth trading day of the contract month.

Attached are two futures contracts for your reference.

Soybean futures contract of Dalian Commodity Exchange

Trading variety yellow soybean

Trading unit 10 ton/lot

Quotation unit RMB

The minimum price change is 1 yuan/ton.

3% of the settlement price of the previous trading day.

The delivery months of the contract are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 1 1.

The trading time is from Monday to Friday at 9: 00 am-165438+0: 30 pm-15: 00 pm.

Last trading day The tenth trading day of the contract month.

Seventh day after the last trading day (postponed in case of legal holidays)

See the annex for the specific content of delivery grade.

Delivery place Dalian Commodity Exchange designated delivery warehouse

5% of the contract value of the trading margin

Transaction fee 4 yuan/hand

Centralized delivery by delivery method

Transaction code s

Listed exchange Dalian commodity exchange

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) wheat futures contract

Trading unit 5000 bushels

The minimum price change is 0//4 cents per bushel/kloc ($65,438+$02.50 per contract).

The maximum daily price per bushel is not higher or lower than the settlement price of the previous trading day.

The fluctuation is limited to 20 cents ($65,438+$0,000 per contract), and the spot month is not limited.

Contract months 9, 12, 1, 3, 5, 7,

The trading time is from 9: 30 am to afternoon 1: 15 (Chicago time), and the trading deadline on the last trading day of the expired contract is noon that day.

Last trading day The seventh business day from the last business day of the delivery month.

The price difference of delivery grade No.2 soft red wheat, No.2 hard red winter wheat, No.2 black north spring wheat and No.2 north spring wheat shall be stipulated by the exchange.

Trading of futures contracts

The whole process of futures trading can be summarized as opening positions, holding positions, closing positions or physical delivery.

Opening a position means that a trader newly buys or sells a certain number of futures contracts. For example, you can sell 10 soybean futures contracts. When this transaction is your first transaction, it is called opening a position. In the futures market, buying and selling a futures contract is equivalent to signing a forward delivery contract. Contracts that are not open after opening positions are called opening contracts or closing contracts, also known as positions. When opening a position, the position held after buying a futures contract is called a long position, referred to as a long position; The positions held after selling futures contracts are called short positions, referred to as short positions.

If the trader keeps the futures contract until the end of the last trading day, he must settle the futures transaction through physical delivery. However, only a few people make physical delivery. About 99% market participants choose to sell the futures contracts they bought or buy back the futures contracts they sold before the end of the last trading day, that is, hedge the original futures contracts through the same number of futures transactions in opposite directions, so as to close the futures transactions and relieve the obligation of physical delivery at maturity. For example, if you sold 65,438+00 lots of soybean contracts in May 2000, you should buy 65,438+00 lots of the same contract to hedge your position before the contract expires in May 2000. In this way, a transaction is over as soon as it is even. It's just like financial accounting. Once the same amount of money goes in and out, the account will be balanced. This behavior of buying back a sold contract or selling a bought contract is called liquidation. After opening the position, traders can choose two ways to close the futures contract: either choose the opportunity to close the position or reserve it for physical delivery on the last trading day.

Futures traders may gain or lose money when buying and selling futures contracts. So, from the perspective of traders themselves, what kind of transactions are profitable? What kind of transaction is a loss? Please look at an example. For example, you choose to buy and sell soybeans 1 contracts. You sell the 1 hand soybean contract for delivery in May next year at the price of 2 188 yuan/ton. At this time, your trading position is called "short position" Now you can say that you are a "short seller" or that you are shorting the 1 hand soybean contract.

When you become a bear, you have two choices. One is to keep short positions until the contract expires. At the time of delivery, you buy 10 tons of soybeans in the spot market and submit them to the buyer of the contract. If you can buy soybeans at a price lower than 2 188 yuan/ton, you can make a profit after delivery; On the contrary, if you buy at a price higher than 2 188 yuan/ton, you will lose money. For example, if you spend 2238 yuan/ton on soybean delivery, then you will lose 500 yuan (excluding transaction and delivery costs).

As a short position, your other option is to hedge your position when the soybean futures price is favorable to you. In other words, if you are a seller (short), you can buy the same contract, become a buyer and close your position. If this confuses you, you can think about what you did when the contract expired: you bought soybeans from the spot market to make up for the short position and submitted them to the buyer of the contract, which is essentially the same. If you are short and long at the same time, the two cancel each other out, and you can leave the futures market. If you take 2 188 yuan/ton as a short position and 2058 yuan/ton as a long position to repurchase the original selling contract, then you can earn 1300 yuan (excluding transaction costs).

6. 1. 1.4 What are the main characteristics of futures trading?

The first is that the objects of the transaction are different. The scope of spot trading includes all commodities; The object of futures trading is the standardized contract formulated by the exchange. All the terms in the contract, such as the quantity, quality, margin ratio, delivery place, delivery method and transaction method, are standardized, and only the price in the contract is a free price formed through market bidding transactions. As for the futures contract, we have already talked about it.

The second is that the purpose of the transaction is different. In spot trading, the buyer is to obtain goods; The seller is to sell the goods and realize their value. The purpose of futures trading is to transfer price risk or profit from speculation.

When you start futures trading, some thoughts may appear in your mind: "If I trade a contract as a buyer or a seller, what should I do when the contract expires and I have to provide this commodity?" Where can I buy soybeans for delivery? "In fact, there is nothing to worry about. Less than 1% of futures transactions need to be delivered. As a trader, you just need to make sure to close your position before the contract is delivered. Remember: less than 1% of futures contracts need physical delivery, and most contracts are hedged or closed before delivery.

The third is the different transaction procedures. In spot trading, the seller can only sell the goods, and the buyer can only buy them by paying cash. This is the trading procedure of spot trading. Futures trading can reverse the procedure of spot trading, that is, you can sell without goods and buy without goods.

Investors who have just entered the futures market often ask: how do I sell what I don't have? To understand why, please remember the definition of futures contract. A futures contract is an "agreement" to buy and sell a certain quantity and quality of goods at a certain time in the future, rather than actually buying and selling something in kind. Therefore, selling a futures contract means signing an agreement to deliver the subject matter at some time in the future.