1. The development of Hong Kong futures market
The futures market in Hong Kong has developed gradually since the 1970s. Although the history is not long, the development process is very complicated and tortuous. In Hong Kong, there are brokers first and then exchanges. Before 1976, there were brokerage branches in Hong Kong that traded in European and American futures markets, mainly trading futures in Chicago and other places for Hong Kong customers.
In June, 1973, Jin Shi Group, composed of some companies and businessmen, applied to open a futures exchange according to local conditions. After four years of rigorous examination by the Hong Kong government and the promulgation of the Commodity Trading Ordinance by the legislature, the Hong Kong Commodity Exchange began to operate only after 1977 obtained the license. At first, it mainly engaged in cotton and raw sugar futures trading, and successively launched soybean and gold futures contracts in 1979 and 1980. Within a few years after the introduction of these varieties, cotton futures trading failed, and other futures varieties also collapsed. In addition, there are serious drawbacks in management, such as group manipulation. The Hong Kong futures market began to rectify from 1982. After many consultations between the parties concerned and the coordination of the Hong Kong government, the group composed of several banks and the commodity exchange reached a joint restructuring agreement on 1984 to reorganize the original commodity exchange into a futures exchange. In 2000, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK) and Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited (HKFE) were reorganized into shares and merged with Hong Kong Securities Clearing Limited (HKSCC), which was owned by a single holding company, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
With regard to futures supervision, due to the global stock market crash in June 5438+0987 and June 5438+00, the Davidson Committee suggested that a committee independent of the government should be responsible for the supervision of the exchange, and the government would only intervene when the committee failed to exercise proper supervision. This framework has been running since June 5438+0989, and it has not changed. Since the mid-1990s, after nearly 10 years of efforts, the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission and the government finally promulgated the Securities and Futures Ordinance in April 2003, which took effect in April of that year. The Securities and Futures Ordinance consolidated and replaced 65,438+00 regulations governing securities, futures and leveraged foreign exchange trading.
2. Futures exchanges and varieties
The Hong Kong Futures Exchange is a derivative market under the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and a major derivative exchange in the Asia-Pacific region. It provides an efficient and diversified market for investors to buy and sell futures and options contracts through more than 65,438+030 exchange participants, many of whom are subsidiaries of international financial institutions.
The derivatives market of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange provides a trading market for various futures and options products, including stock index, stock and interest rate futures and options products. The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and its subsidiaries, Hong Kong Futures Clearing Company Limited and Options Clearing House Limited of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, have implemented a strict risk management system to allow exchange participants and their clients to invest and hedge in a highly liquid and well-regulated market.
At present, the products in the derivatives market of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange are divided into three categories: stock index products, stock products, interest rates and fixed-rate products. Stock market indexes include Xinhua FTSE China 25 index futures and options, Hang Seng China H-share financial index futures, Hang Seng index futures and options, H-share index futures and options, small Hang Seng index futures and options, and small H-share index futures. Stock products include stock futures and stock options; Interest rate and fixed-rate products include Hong Kong dollar interest rate futures and 3-year Exchange Fund bond futures.
Second, the development of Hong Kong futures companies
1. Overview of Hong Kong Futures Company
The Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission stipulates that brokers must hold a futures contract trading license before they can buy and sell futures contracts as agents. There are four main types of participants in the Hong Kong futures market: first, traders, who only trade their own accounts; Second, brokers, engaged in their own account transactions, but also a member of the trading agent; Third, futures commission merchant (FCM), which can engage in self-owned and customer account transactions, and can also act as a broker for other members; Fourth, merchant traders, they are deliverable commodity futures traders.
Number of licensed brokers in the Hong Kong Futures Exchange
Among these licensed futures brokerage companies, small-scale ones do not place orders directly with the exchange, but with large local brokerage companies. Some large brokers can place orders 24 hours a day, either by phone or online, while some small brokers will not reply whether the customer's order is completed until the next working day after receiving the phone order at night. Moreover, according to the different services provided, brokers will also have some differences in collecting commissions, paying handling fees and stock custody fees. Some brokerage companies charge very low fees, but their services are limited to the execution of buying and selling orders, while others provide a series of other services such as research and investment consulting. In addition, some brokerage companies will provide special services such as online trading services, discretionary accounts or margin accounts, while others only allow customers to open cash accounts. Investors should identify themselves when opening an account. Some companies require at least HK$ 654.38+10,000 to open an account, and some companies only require sufficient margin to conduct transactions after opening an account.
Number of regulated activities of licensed brokers
2. Introduction to the classification of Hong Kong futures companies
Hong Kong futures companies can be divided into three categories: first, international investment banks; Second, financial groups with strong local strength in Hong Kong; Third, the branches of smaller local or overseas securities or futures companies.
As an international financial center, Hong Kong has attracted world-renowned investment banks such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank to set up an Asia-Pacific foundation for global finance in Hong Kong. For these big international investment banks, futures business is only a part of their whole business, and their main customers are generally institutional investors such as insurance companies, mutual funds and hedge funds. Even if there is personal business, the number is very small, and only high-end customers with financial strength are selected. Therefore, in terms of market segmentation, they have subdivided and monopolized the top of the pyramid.
Financial groups with strong local strength in Hong Kong generally provide comprehensive services such as securities and futures, such as Credit Suisse, Payton, Sun Hung Kai Finance and Emperor. In addition to local futures options in Hong Kong, these financial groups generally provide channels for buying and selling global commodity futures, and their customers are retail investors and a small number of small institutional customers.
3. International brokerage transactions
According to the results of the "2005/2006 derivatives market research survey" conducted by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the investor transactions in the United States, Europe, Japan and Singapore mainly come from institutional investors, while those in China Mainland mainly come from individual investors. In derivatives transactions, both the total turnover and the transactions of foreign investors are mostly conducted through foreign derivatives brokers. American-controlled derivatives brokers are the most active in serving American and European investors; European-controlled derivatives brokers actively serve European investors, but rarely serve investors in other overseas regions; Investors in Chinese mainland mainly use the services of local derivatives brokers.
Number of foreign derivatives brokers
Three. Typical Company Introduction-Peyton Financial Group
Payton Financial Group (Payton for short) was established in 1990. It is a comprehensive financial services company, providing comprehensive and diversified financial services and portfolios through five wholly-owned subsidiaries: Payton Futures, Payton Securities, Payton Finance, Payton Asset Management and Payton Financing. The company's services cover Japanese commodity futures, American futures, Hang Seng Index futures, interest rate futures, securities, unit trust funds and insurance-related products, loans, stock exhibitions and corporate financing, providing one-stop investment and financial services for individuals and corporate customers. On June 5438+ 10, 2002, Peyton Financial Group was successfully listed on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Peyton financial futures trading category
Memorabilia of Peyton Financial Group
1. The proportion of futures brokerage business decreased.
Peyton Financial Group is engaged in a number of financial services, but the futures brokerage business has always occupied a major position. In 2002, the Group's futures brokerage business accounted for 965,438+0% of the total turnover; In 2003, it accounted for 93.5% of the total turnover; In 2004, it accounted for 75.3% of the total turnover; In 2007, the proportion of income from futures brokerage business decreased to 365,438+0.9%.
There are two reasons for the decline in the proportion of futures brokerage business in Payton Financial Group's total turnover: on the one hand, it is due to the expansion of other businesses, and on the other hand, it is due to the contraction of futures brokerage business. Payton is the largest Japanese commodity commission merchant in Hong Kong, with a market share of over 50% and an unparalleled leading position. From 20065438+0 to 2003, the futures business was in the process of expansion, but since 2004, the futures business has been shrinking and losses have occurred.
There are two reasons for the shrinkage of futures business: first, investors turn to other investment tools to reduce the trading of Japanese commodity futures, especially basic commodities such as grain, raw sugar and red beans, and the trading of Hong Kong-Japan futures market shrinks; Second, since 2005, the financial industry and the real estate industry have continued to grow, and the labor market has begun to recover. Payton's excellent and capable account director has become the target of competitors and even banks, resulting in a large number of customers losing.
In 2005, Payton Financial Group's commission income from Japanese futures trading decreased by 49.6% from HK$ 99.7 million in 2004 to HK$ 53 million, and the group's annual operating loss reached HK$ 1 1 million. In 2006, the brokerage commission income of futures contracts decreased by 30.8% compared with 2005 to HK$ 36.2 million. In 2007, brokerage commission income of futures contracts decreased by 9.7% compared with 2006 to HK$ 32.7 million.
2. Expansion of other businesses
Payton Financial Group is positioned as a "full-service financial institution". Therefore, in addition to the futures brokerage business, we will also vigorously develop other financial businesses, such as securities brokerage and securities margin trading, corporate financing, wealth management and insurance agency, capital lending, sitting trading and so on. The composition of turnover in 2007 shows that the top four companies in turnover are futures brokers, wealth management and insurance agents, securities brokers, securities margin financing and securities lending, and self-operated businesses.
In addition, Payton Financial Group is positioned in the sustainable development of Greater China and Southeast Asia, and has launched a number of investment projects, mainly divided into three areas:
First look for business opportunities to acquire the rights and interests of mainland financial futures companies, and then enter the mainland market effectively and quickly. In July 2007, the Group signed memorandums of understanding with three mainland pawn companies, and plans to establish a pawn chain business in the Mainland, and plans to acquire a futures company in the Mainland.
Second, private investment, in addition to expanding brokerage-related business in the Mainland, plans to invest in listed or private companies with growth potential in Hong Kong and China. For listed companies, they can benefit from the rise in stock prices; On the other hand, private companies can get considerable returns through successful listing. After weighing different options, we acquired a 20% stake in a private company engaged in developing and providing optical character recognition systems in July 2007.
The third is fund management, which cooperates with different fund managers to manage a series of funds and invest in A-shares or H-shares or multiple property projects in the Mainland.
Turnover and proportion of Payton's business in 2007 (unit: HK$)
3. Create a group brand
Payton Financial Group attaches great importance to brand building and promotion, and has invested a lot of resources in marketing, including TV advertisements, participation in financial expositions, joint venture seminars between Hong Kong and the Mainland, and financial information programs in newspapers and broadcast media, in order to create a brand effect. Facts have proved that the brand building of Payton Financial Group is relatively successful, and it has established an honest and professional image in the hearts of many enterprises and individual investors. Through brand building, Payton Financial Group's popularity has been improved and more business has been brought to the group.
In addition, Payton also took the lead in setting up a marketing team in the industry to explore and advocate various communication channels such as television, newspapers and the Internet, so as to further enhance brand awareness and research strength. These marketing activities further shaped the company's image by promoting new services and cross-product marketing opportunities.
4. Staff training
According to the positioning of the Group as a "comprehensive financial service", Payton has been committed to attracting more senior executives to join in order to strengthen the strength in all aspects and meet the challenges in the future. Payton Financial Group has always promoted employee training as a key task, such as designing a series of training courses for account directors to enhance their professional knowledge and professional ethics; Encourage account directors and financial planning consultants to obtain licenses for various financial products, and provide customers with comprehensive and detailed opinions according to their different investment objectives and requirements.
With the intensification of market competition in Hong Kong, Peyton pays more and more attention to research. On the one hand, it serves its "professional requirements"; On the other hand, the group has set up a "sit-and-buy" business, which has very high requirements for research, and has specially set up a capable research and analysis team for this purpose.
Fourthly, the enlightenment of the development of Hong Kong futures companies.
As an international financial center, Hong Kong has gathered many top international investment banks, and local futures companies are facing fierce competition. However, these local futures companies still found their own position in the competition, constantly expanding their business, occupying a place in the market, and even taking the lead in some fields. The development experience of Hong Kong futures companies is mainly reflected in three aspects:
The first is the positioning of market segments. Because there are many financial enterprises in Hong Kong, how to find their own position has become the key to the success or failure of local futures companies. For example, Payton Financial Group is positioned as a "comprehensive financial service company", providing one-stop investment and wealth management services for individuals and corporate customers, and its business is also carried out around this positioning, which has achieved obvious success.
The second is the innovation of business development. Hong Kong's financial market is full of innovation, and business innovation has become the norm. For companies that focus on futures business, it is not enough to regard futures brokerage business as the only source of their income. On the basis of consolidating the core futures business, it is an inevitable requirement for the development of futures companies to continuously expand profit growth points. From the perspective of innovation, futures companies are also required to have a broad vision of innovation and the necessary talent pool.
The third is the emphasis on employee training. The most important thing in financial services is talent. Whether it is to increase the competitiveness of existing business or expand new business, we must rely on excellent talents. In addition to recruiting all kinds of senior talents, Hong Kong Futures Company attaches great importance to the training of existing employees and will improve their professionalism through various means. The fierce competition in Hong Kong's financial market is not only reflected in the fierce business competition, but also in the fierce talent competition. Therefore, how to retain excellent employees is also one of the challenges faced by Hong Kong futures companies. Providing employees with various training opportunities can not only improve their professionalism and ability, but also enhance their loyalty and further form a virtuous circle of the company. Employees bring good performance to the company, and the company provides employees with a stable and rewarding future.