1, stock index futures trade the future value of the index, and trade in the form of margin, which has an important leverage effect. According to the rules designed now, the leverage ratio of Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 index futures in the future is about 10 times, and the capital utilization efficiency is high. At present, ETF is an index spot for all cash transactions, and there is no leverage effect.
2. The minimum transaction amount is different. The minimum margin of each stock index futures contract is 1 10,000 yuan, and the minimum trading unit of ETF is the first hand, and the corresponding minimum amount is about 100 yuan.
3. The trading of stock index futures does not include the dividends of index constituent stocks, while during the holding of ETF, the dividends of the underlying index constituent stocks belong to investors.
4. Stock index futures usually have a definite duration, and the index needs to be tracked on the maturity date, and new stock index futures contracts need to be bought again, while ETF products do not renew their contracts.
5. With the different expectations of investors for the broader market, the trend of stock index futures may not be completely consistent with the index, and there may be a certain range of discounts and premiums. The degree of discount and premium depends on the amount of arbitrage funds and the efficiency of arbitrage, while the ETF net value trend of completely passively tracking the index usually maintains a high consistency with the index.
Through the above comparison, we can see that although they are both index tools, stock index futures and ETFs have different product characteristics and are suitable for different types of investors. At the same time, from the development experience of foreign mature capital markets, due to the need of risk management, there is an important interaction and complementary relationship between spot products and futures products of the index.