Futures are relative to spot. Futures are the subject matter that is bought and sold now, but will be settled or delivered in the future. This subject matter can be gold, crude oil, agricultural products, financial instruments, financial indicators and other commodities. 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. Improper speculation on futures, such as short selling stocks, will lead to financial market turmoil.

Futures history

The future in English is the future, which evolved from the word "future". It means that both parties to the transaction don't have to deliver the physical object at the initial stage of buying and selling, but agree to deliver the physical object at some time in the future, so China people call it "futures". The original futures trading developed from spot forward trading. The initial spot forward transaction is a verbal commitment by both parties to deliver a certain amount of goods at a certain time. Later, with the expansion of the scope of transactions, oral promises were gradually replaced by sales contracts. This kind of contract behavior is becoming more and more complicated, which requires the guarantee of intermediary agencies to supervise the timely delivery and payment of goods. Therefore, the Royal Exchange, the world's first commodity forward contract exchange, opened in London on 157 1. In order to adapt to the continuous development of commodity economy, 1848, 82 businessmen initiated the establishment of Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), with the purpose of improving transportation and storage conditions and providing information for members. 185 1 Chicago Board of Trade launches forward contracts; 1865, Chicago Grain Exchange introduced a standardized agreement called "futures contract" to replace the previous forward contract. With this standardized contract, manual trading can be carried out, and the margin system is gradually improved, so a futures market specializing in standardized contract trading has been formed, and futures has become an investment and financial management tool for investors. 1882 exchange allows hedging to be exempted from performance obligations, which increases the liquidity of futures trading. The background of China futures market is the reform of grain circulation system. With the cancellation of the policy of unified purchase and marketing of agricultural products and the liberalization of most agricultural products prices, the market is playing an increasingly important role in regulating the production, circulation and consumption of agricultural products. The ups and downs of agricultural products prices, the undisclosed and distorted spot prices, the ups and downs of agricultural production, and the lack of value-preserving mechanism of grain enterprises have attracted the attention of leaders and scholars. Whether a mechanism can provide price signals to guide future production and operation activities and prevent market risks caused by price fluctuations has become the focus of attention. 1February, 988, the leaders of the State Council instructed relevant departments to study the foreign futures market system and solve the problem of domestic agricultural product price fluctuation. 1In March, 1988, the government work report of the First Session of the Seventh National People's Congress proposed: actively develop various wholesale trade markets and explore futures trading. It started the research and construction of China futures market.

Futures contract:

The standardized contract made by the futures exchange stipulates that a certain quantity and quality of the subject matter will be delivered at a specific time and place in the future. Futures commission: equivalent to the commission in the stock. For stocks, the expenses of stock trading include stamp duty, commission and transfer fees. Relatively speaking, the cost of engaging in futures trading is only the handling fee. Futures commission refers to the fees paid by futures traders according to a certain proportion of the total contract value after the futures transaction.

Margin:

Refers to the funds paid by futures traders in accordance with the prescribed standards for settlement and performance guarantee.

Settlement:

Refers to the settlement of the trading profits and losses of both parties according to the settlement price announced by the futures exchange.

Delivery:

It refers to the process that when a futures contract expires, according to the rules and procedures of the futures exchange, both parties to the transaction close the contract at the end of the period by transferring the ownership of the goods contained in the futures contract.

Open position:

The trading behavior of starting to buy or sell futures contracts is called "opening positions" or "establishing trading positions".

Closed position:

It refers to the behavior of futures traders to buy or sell futures contracts with the same variety, quantity and delivery month but opposite trading direction, and conclude futures trading.

Warehouse receipt:

Refers to the standardized delivery certificate issued by the delivery warehouse and recognized by the futures exchange. Futures k-line chart

Reach an agreement:

It refers to the process that the computer trading system of the futures exchange pairs the trading orders of both parties. Including market maker mode and bidding mode.

Price limit:

It means that the trading price of a futures contract in a trading day shall not be higher or lower than the specified fluctuation range, and the quotation beyond this fluctuation range will be regarded as invalid and cannot be traded.

Compulsory liquidation system:

Refers to the futures brokerage company in the customer trading margin is insufficient, customer positions exceed the prescribed position limit, in order to prevent further expansion of risks, to punish customers for violations, according to the emergency measures of the exchange should be forced to close positions, and other circumstances that should be forced to close positions, the implementation of the compulsory liquidation system.

Arbitrage:

A trading technique that speculators or hedgers can use, that is, buying spot or futures commodities in one market and selling the same or similar commodities in another market, in the hope of making a profit by making a difference between the two transactions. Open positions, positions, positions: buying and selling in futures trading, as long as they are newly established positions, are called opening positions. A position held by a trader is called a position. Closing a position refers to the trading behavior of a trader, and the way to close a position is to hedge the position in the opposite direction. Because of the different meanings of opening position and closing position, traders must specify whether to open position or close position when buying and selling futures contracts. Example: An investor bought March Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 index futures 10 lots (sheets) and 1450 points on February 30th. At this time, he has 10 bulls. By 65438+ 10/0 next year, investors saw that the futures price rose to 1500, so they sold five closed March stock index futures at this price. After the transaction, the investor actually holds more than 5 orders. If an investor sells five open positions of March stock index futures at the time of declaration, after the transaction, the actual position of the investor should be 15 lots, 10 long positions and 5 short positions.

Explosion:

It means that the investor's account equity is negative. It shows that investors not only lost all the margin, but also owed debts to futures brokerage companies. Due to the daily liquidation system and the compulsory liquidation system in futures trading, there will be no short positions in general. However, in some special circumstances, such as the gap change in the market, accounts with heavy positions and opposite directions may explode. When there is a short position, investors must make up the deficit in time, otherwise they will face legal recourse. In order to avoid this situation, it is necessary to control positions specially and avoid Man Cang operation like stock trading. And track the market in time, and you can't buy it like a stock market. Long position and short position: futures trading adopts a two-way trading mechanism, and both buyers and sellers have it. In futures trading, buyers are called bulls and sellers are called bears. Although buyers are also called bulls in stock market transactions, sellers are called bears. But the seller in stock trading must be the person who holds the stock, and the person who does not have the stock cannot sell it.

Settlement price:

Refers to the weighted average price of the transaction price of the futures contract on the same day according to the volume. If there is no transaction on that day, the settlement price of the previous trading day is the settlement price of that day. The settlement price is the basis for the profit and loss settlement of the open contract on that day and the establishment of the price limit board on the next trading day.

Volume:

Refers to the bilateral quantity of all contracts traded in a futures contract on the same day.

Total number of positions:

It is the total number of "open contracts" on futures contracts of all investors in the market. In the market information released by the exchange, there is a special "total position" column. The change of total positions reflects investors' interest in contracts and is an important indicator for investors to participate in contract transactions. If the total positions keep increasing, it shows that both sides are building positions, investors' interest in contracts is increasing, and OTC funds are pouring into contract transactions; On the contrary, when the total position decreases, it shows that both parties are closing their positions and traders' interest in the contract is declining. On the other hand, when the trading volume increases, the total position changes little, indicating that the market is dominated by changing hands.

Hand-changing transactions: Hand-changing transactions include "multi-position hand-changing" and "short-position hand-changing". When a trader who originally held a long position sells and closes his position, but a new long position opens his position and buys it, it is called "multi-position hand-changing"; And "short change hands" means that the trader who originally held a short position is buying and closing the position, but the new short position is selling. Trading orders: There are three orders for stock index futures trading: market order, limit orders and cancellation order. The trading order is valid on the same day. Before the order is closed, the customer can propose changes or cancel the order. 1. Market order: refers to an order that is declared to be sold at an unlimited price and is closed at the best market price as far as possible. 2. Limit order: refers to an order that must be executed at a limited price or better. Its characteristic is that if a deal is made, it must be the customer's expectation or a better price. 3. Revocation instruction: refers to the instruction of the customer to revoke the previous instruction. If the previous order has been closed before the cancellation order takes effect, it is called cancellation and the customer must accept the closing result. If a part of the transaction has been completed, you can cancel the remaining unfinished part. Hedging: buying (selling) corresponding futures contracts with the same quantity as the spot market, with similar term but opposite direction, so as to offset the actual price risk of the commodity or financial instrument due to market price changes by selling (buying) the same futures contract at some future time. Margin: Margin is the financial guarantee required by the exchange to ensure the performance of the contract. It is a sum of money deposited in the investor's account, which shows his credibility of being responsible for his trading position. According to the nature, margin can be divided into three types: trading margin, settlement margin and additional margin. Trading margin refers to the funds guaranteed by investors in the special settlement account of the exchange, which has been occupied by the contract; The settlement margin is the remaining part of the investor's special settlement account in the exchange after removing the trading margin already occupied in the exchange. Additional margin means that if the equity in the investor's account on that day is less than the position margin, it means that the fund balance is negative and the margin is insufficient. According to the regulations, the futures brokerage company will notify the account owner to make up the deposit before the market opens on the next trading day. This is called margin call. Forced liquidation: If the account owner fails to make up the margin before the market opens on the next trading day, according to the regulations, the futures brokerage company may force partial or full liquidation of the account owner's position until the retained margin meets the specified requirements. Position limit: namely trading position limit. Refers to the maximum number of futures contracts that an exchange can hold for investors, and manages market risks in terms of market share allocation. Bidding method: computer matching transaction. Computer matchmaking transaction is an automatic transaction method designed according to the principle of open bidding, which has the advantages of accuracy, continuity, high speed and large capacity. Position: a market agreement, that is, the number of futures contracts bought or sold without hedging. For buyers, it is said to be bulls; For the seller, it is called an empty position. Open position: refers to the sum of the number of contracts that have not been reversed by buyers and sellers. The size of the position reflects the size of the market transaction and the difference between the long and short sides in the current price. For example, if two people are counterparties, one person opens a position to buy 1 contract, and the other person opens a position to sell 1 contract, then the position is displayed as a 2-hand contract. Inner disk and outer disk: equivalent to the inner disk and outer disk in stock software. For example, the person entrusted with the seller's transaction is classified as "outer disk" and the person entrusted with the buyer's transaction is classified as "inner disk". "Outer disk" and "inner disk" add up to volume. Main hand: refers to the total number of hands that have been sold in this contract so far. In China, 1 hand is traded by both parties, so you can see that the mantissa is double digits. Commission rate: refers to the index used to measure the relative strength of orders in a period of time, and its calculation formula is: Commission rate = [(number of entrusted buyers-number of entrusted sellers) ÷ (number of entrusted buyers+number of entrusted sellers) ]× 100% position difference: short for position difference, it refers to the difference between the current position and the position corresponding to yesterday's closing price. If it is positive, add positions today; If it is negative, the position will be reduced. Position difference is the change of position. For example, the position of stock index futures contract in June 165438+ 10 is 60,000 lots, whereas it was 50,000 lots yesterday, so the position difference today is 1 10,000 lots. In addition: there are also changes in position differences in the transaction column. Here refers to the comparison between the position change caused by the current transaction order and the previous instant position, whether to increase or decrease the position. Multi-single open position: the abbreviation of multi-single open position means that the position has increased, but the added value of the position is less than the current position, which belongs to active buying. Short position: short position means that the position has increased, but the added value of the position is less than the current position, which belongs to active selling; For example, selling and buying in the above example can be reversed. Double opening: refers to a transaction in which the opening amount is equal to the current amount, the closing amount is zero, the opening amount increases, and the difference is equal to the current amount, which means that both long and short positions increase their positions. Double flat: refers to a transaction where the opening amount is equal to zero, the closing amount is the current amount, the opening amount is reduced, and the difference is equal to the current amount, indicating that both long and short positions have reduced their positions. The original bulls sell and close positions, and the original bears buy and close positions and reduce positions. Change more and change less: short for change more and change less. If in a certain transaction, both the open position and the open position are equal to half of the current trading volume, and the positions remain unchanged, it means that the long position and the short position have not changed, but some positions have been transferred between the long position and the short position. Combining the state of the internal market and the external market, we define the transaction state during the internal market as multiple delivery and empty delivery. Multi-level and short-level: referred to as long positions and short positions. Long position closing refers to lightening positions, but the absolute value of lightening positions is less than the current quantity, which belongs to active selling; Short position refers to lightening the position, but the absolute value of lightening the position is less than the current quantity, which belongs to active buying. For example, suppose three people are counterparties, in which A has five long positions, B has five short positions and C has no positions; If Party A wants to close some positions, it will sell 3 positions; Party C thinks that the market will fall and sells 2 positions; If Party B also wants to close the position, it will sell five positions at the current price (selling price), and the disk shows: empty (short), spot transaction 10, position difference -6. If it is a long position, it is to take B as the active position, and A can then close the position. Futures discount and futures premium: in a specific place and within a specific time, the futures price of a specific commodity is higher than the spot price, which is called futures premium; The futures price is lower than the spot price, which is called futures discount. Forward market: Under normal circumstances, the futures price is higher than the spot price. Reverse market: under special circumstances, the futures price is lower than the spot price. Position reduction: in a transaction, the position held is opposite to the price trend, and the liquidation measures are taken to prevent excessive losses.

Edit this futures contract

main feature

A. The commodity variety, quantity, quality, grade, delivery time and delivery place of a futures contract are established and standardized, and the only variable is the price. The standards of futures contracts are usually designed by futures exchanges and listed by national regulatory agencies. B. The futures contract is concluded under the organization of the futures exchange and has legal effect, and the price is generated by public bidding in the trading hall of the exchange; Most foreign countries adopt public bidding, while our country adopts computer trading. C the performance of futures contracts is guaranteed by the exchange, and private transactions are not allowed. D futures contracts can fulfill or cancel their contractual obligations through settlement of spot or hedging transactions.

Constituent element

A. trading variety B. trading quantity and unit C. minimum changing price, and the quotation must be an integer multiple of the minimum changing price D. maximum fluctuation limit of daily price, that is, price limit. When the market price rises to the maximum increase, we call it "daily limit", otherwise, it is called "daily limit". E. contract month F. trading time G. last trading day: the last trading day refers to the last trading day of a futures contract in the contract delivery month H. delivery time: refers to the time of physical delivery stipulated in the contract I. delivery standard and grade J. delivery place K. deposit L. transaction fee

Contract content

Contract name, trading unit, quotation unit, minimum fluctuation price, maximum fluctuation limit of daily price, delivery month, trading time, last trading day, delivery date, delivery level, delivery place, minimum trading margin, transaction cost, delivery method, transaction code, etc. Attachments to futures contracts have the same legal effect as futures contracts.

Contents of futures contract terms

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 in each contract of different trading varieties should be specified in the futures contract of that variety. Transaction price of futures contract: it is the value-added tax price of benchmark delivery goods of futures contract delivered in benchmark delivery warehouse. Contract transaction prices include opening price, closing price and settlement price. If the buyer of a futures contract holds the contract until the expiration date, he is obliged to purchase the subject matter corresponding to the futures contract; If the seller of a futures contract holds the contract until it expires, he is obliged to sell the subject matter corresponding to the futures contract (some futures contracts do not make physical delivery when they expire, but settle the difference, for example, the expiration of stock index futures means that the open futures contracts are finally settled according to a certain average value of the spot index. Of course, traders of futures contracts can also choose to reverse the transaction before the contract expires to offset this obligation.