Simple spot means that you have futures now.
Futures first appeared in Japan in18th century as a way to trade rice and silk, but it didn't appear in the United States until11950s. At this time, the market developed into buying and selling commodities, such as wheat, cotton and corn. A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a certain amount of primary assets at a specific price with a specific time as the delivery date. If the actual physical delivery contract is involved, the quantity and quality, delivery date and delivery place of the subject matter are regulated. Futures contracts are traded in designated trading markets. As the intermediary of each transaction, the liquidation department of the futures exchange is responsible for the liquidation of futures contracts. Because the traders involved in the transaction know that the contract will be realized through the clearing house, the risk of violating the agreement is transferred.
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2. What are the types and details of futures contracts?
Futures contracts are derivatives of primary assets, which can be agricultural products, energy, precious metals or financial products. Futures contracts can be traded all day on global exchanges.
There are 50 exchanges in the world, and Singapore Derivatives Exchange (SGX-DT) is an example of futures exchange.
Futures contracts can be roughly divided into the following types:
1. Stock index futures
2. Foreign exchange futures
3. Interest rate futures
5. Soft commodity futures
4. Energy futures
6. Metal futures
Every futures contract has predetermined contract details. It is very important to know the details of the contract. Such as contract specification, minimum fluctuation value, trading time, contract expiration date, delivery method, etc. It is very important to pay attention to the expiration date of futures contracts. Some futures contracts are delivered in cash, while others involve the actual physical delivery of the subject matter on the maturity date. Few buyers or sellers of futures contracts actually deliver, and 97% futures contracts will be closed before delivery. Futures contracts can be closed by reverse operation before the expiration date, for example, the bought space can be closed by selling. Or investors can trade the same shipping space with a longer delivery date.
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3. Stock index futures
Index futures are based on the expectation of the value direction of an index (such as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index). For such futures contracts, there is no actual transfer of products, stocks or funds. Any changes in such contracts should be expressed in hard currency.
Small index futures, known as e-mini, are favored by some traders because they are considered to be less risky. Take the small S&P 500 index contract as an example, which is the value of 50* S&P 500 index.
In other words, if a trader owns a small S&P 500 index futures contract, then every time the S&P index changes a little, the small S&P 500 index futures contract will change by $50.
For example, when the S&P 500 index is 65,438+0,000, you buy a small S&P 500 index futures contract. When the index becomes 65,438+0,065,438+00, you earn $500, and if the trader trades in the opposite direction, you lose $500.
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4. Comparison between stock index futures and stocks
Stock index futures
Creativity of financial portfolio decomposition
It has sufficient funds to build a large enough financial investment portfolio to obtain diversified benefits.
liquidity
We should carefully and actively choose stocks that make money.
Execution cost
Depends on the price of the stock. The bid-inquiry price difference combination and the brokerage commission cost of completing the transaction are within the range of 1%-3% of the bond value.
lever action
Buying stocks is generally based on the full amount.
underrate
Short selling and loan delivery have rules, which are expensive, not easy and not cheap.
creativity
Every contract contains all the stock synthesis parts, just like the details of a financial portfolio are as diverse.
liquidity
The liquidity of all synthetic stocks is realized by investors participating in trading stocks with little liquidity.
Execution cost
Reduce transaction costs.
lever action
The initial deposit is a percentage of the actual value of the contract.
underrate
The first choice of short selling position is for customers without loans.
The growth of stock index futures is beneficial for customers to trade in a certain range, and customers can have more choices and trade globally.
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5. Calculation of profit and loss
The calculation method of profit and loss (excluding commission) is as follows:
Profit and loss = (selling price-buying price) x minimum fluctuation amount
For example, 1:
2004165438+1October 28th buy1March Dow Jones futures contract @9800 2004165438+1October 29th.
Sell 1 Dow Jones futures contract @ 9780
Applying the formula, profit and loss = (selling price-buying price) x minimum fluctuation value = (9780-9800) x 10 USD x 1.
= 200 dollars. Therefore, the customer's loss is 200 yuan.
For example, 2:
2004 165438+ 10/4 1 month selling 1 Singapore MSCI futures contract @ 2 15.02004 65438+ 10. Month @ 2 13.2 Applying the formula, profit and loss = (selling price-buying price) x minimum fluctuation value = (2 15.0, so the customer's loss is 360 Singapore dollars.
The growth of the stock index is conducive to more choices for customers and to global transactions within a certain range.
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6. Commodity futures
Buyers or buyers can conduct futures trading of many commodities, including agricultural products (pork, wheat, corn or soybean), precious metals (gold, copper and silver) and many other commodities. Traders usually do not directly become buyers or sellers of actual commodities, because they will withdraw from futures contracts by changing hands before the commodities expire. They are speculators, trading on the belief that commodity prices will change.
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7. Bond futures
Bond futures are based on a specially named bond and need to be delivered at a specific exchange rate on a specific date.
Speculators are basically a kind of speculation about the upward or downward fluctuation of bond prices. Its value and change are greatly influenced by the exchange rate. Generally speaking, when the exchange rate falls, the bond price rises, and vice versa.
For example, a speculator who thinks that interest rates will rise will short contracts for future capital delivery. If the interest rate rises as he expected, the price of the basic fund will decrease. At this time, he can choose one of the following two ways to operate:
Buy the fund at a low price and then sell it to the buyer who finalized the contract at a high price to profit from it.
Closed contract arbitrage
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8. Foreign exchange futures
For example, 1:
6 June 2003 10
Buy1March Australian dollar futures contract @ 7 170.
165438+2003127 October
Sell 1 3 month Australian dollar futures contract @ 7230
(2003127 October, 165438, Australian dollar against Japanese yen against US dollar)
Applying the formula, profit and loss = (selling price-buying price) x minimum fluctuation value.
= (7230-7 100) x 10 USD
= 1, 300 USD
Therefore, the customer's profit is $65438+$0300.
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9. Margin trading-Summary
Futures traders do not invest according to the full amount of the contract value they trade. When an investor participates in a futures contract and asks him to pay a small amount of money to the broker, it is called margin. The economic function of margin is that it concisely minimizes the risks that either party may bear in the futures contract. The customer's margin deposit is kept separately from Ruifu's own funds, and these margins are kept in the customer's independent funds to prevent brokers from mixing with the customer's funds.
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10. Deposit type
There are two kinds of margin: the original margin, that is, the original amount of funds needed to establish the future positions, and the other is the maintenance margin, that is, the minimum amount of funds that must be guaranteed in the margin account in order to hold positions.
Most exchanges will adopt the system of original margin and maintenance margin, and a few exchanges will only adopt the original margin system.
Original margin-the original margin is the minimum amount that customers must pay to trade futures contracts.
According to different commodities and different amounts, a certain proportion of the contract amount will be charged.
Maintenance deposit–The amount of maintenance deposit is lower than the original deposit. When the customer's margin deposit is lower than this maintenance guarantee, the customer will be required to make up the margin to the original margin standard.
Futures contracts are settled every day at the end of each trading day. At the end of the transaction, the exchange where the futures contract is located will determine a settlement price to calculate the profit and loss of the open contract on that day. Gains or losses calculated at the settlement price will be credited or debited to the account. This provides a way for customers and brokers to measure the status of their accounts and decide whether to add margin.
When the customer's margin deposit is lower than the maintenance margin, a notice of additional margin will be issued on the second working day, requiring at least additional margin to the original margin level.
Pay attention to some basic questions about the deposit:
The initial deposit is usually 3% to 15% of the contract amount.
For some exchanges that only implement the original margin system, when the customer's margin deposit level is lower than the original margin level, additional margin will be needed. In order to avoid frequent recovery of the deposit, experienced customers usually take the following measures: deposit the deposit at a higher level than the original deposit or avoid the situation that the open position occupies most of the deposit.
It is important to understand: the high leverage of trading futures contracts. Because only a small part of the total contract amount is needed as a margin for the transaction. In this way, the gains and losses will be amplified. Investors are advised to pay attention to the actual value of the contract, not just the deposit.
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1 1. Order type
Part of the transaction is to set the instructions you want to execute. With the rapid development of information technology, futures can be traded directly on the electronic trading platform through the Internet, and all that is needed is to input instructions through a personal computer. Or you can explain it orally to the broker by phone. For such verbal instructions, to ensure that your broker understands your instructions, it is best to let the broker repeat the instructions according to your instructions. Regardless of the type of trading instructions, traders must understand all kinds of commonly used trading types.
Market price list
Market entrustment refers to the price that can be obtained in the current market. No specific price is specified, but the best price that can be obtained in the exchange or the computer trading system of the exchange where the order is placed is bought or sold.
For example, market buying will be sold at the best selling price in the market, and market selling will be sold at the best buying price in the market. In a highly liquid market, you can easily open and close positions without giving a specific price. However, in the illiquid market, there is a big gap between the best buying price and the best selling price, or in the very unstable market, the price fluctuates violently. When you want to open or close a position, you may face the risk of closing a position at a price quite different from the current price. Pay attention when using the market price list, once it is issued, it cannot be cancelled.
limit order
A limit order refers to buying or selling at a specific or better price. Limit orders are usually set at a price lower than the current price, and limit orders are usually set at a price higher than the current price. A limit order specifies the execution price of the order, but does not guarantee that the order can be executed.
Stop loss order
Stop loss orders are usually used to minimize losses, protect profits and even guarantee new positions. Buying stop-loss orders usually set a stop-loss point higher than the current price, and selling stop-loss orders set a stop-loss point lower than the current price. Once the price reaches or exceeds the set stop-loss point, the stop-loss order will be executed at the best possible price in the form of market order. Like the market price list, the transaction price may be worse or much worse than the specified price.
For example, at present, the trading price of SiMSCI is 190.0. If an investor goes long and falls to 185.0, he wants to stop. He can ask his broker to do so, and use a sell stop order at the price of 185.0, so that nothing will happen when the price is higher than 185.0.
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12. Transaction method
Although there is no fixed and quick winning criterion or formula in the transaction; Traders have a better chance of success. People should not only know the market where they trade, but also have a certain trading plan for the market where they trade. A certain regularity in trading is the key to the success of trading, and traders need to have certain confidence in trading methods and analysis. More importantly, traders can learn from the failure of trading. The following criteria are worth learning by traders in trading:
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Choose the right market.
Choose a contract that you are familiar with and adapt to. The activity of trading contracts is also very important, especially for traders of the day, who need to get positions fairly quickly and leave existing positions. Remember, futures trading has a strong leverage, which is a meaning of trading, or in other words, choose a contract with more trading ability for your funds. A contract that can bear the transaction risk. Some markets may have high risks and instability, and such market traders may be difficult to control.
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14. Use stop-loss points
A stop-loss order allows traders to avoid greater losses when shorting, because this order stops the huge losses that may be brought to traders before they will suffer greater losses.
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15. Reduce losses
Minimizing losses is a difficult thing to follow up. We should constantly learn from our failures and don't always put ourselves at a disadvantage. Stock traders are often able to stick to their long-term investments, but it is unwise to do so if it is bad for future positions. Because of leverage, constant losses caused by unfavorable positions may lead to faster losses in the account, resulting in excess losses, so remember to stop losses.
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16. Get benefits
When you know your market, your technical analysis shows that the market may fluctuate and move, and set the profit stop point according to your expected profit value or technical level. If the market is better than your expected profit position, you may exaggerate the stop loss range to get a return when there is an opportunity to make you more profitable. If the market trend is unfavorable, it is unrealistic for you to continue to be short.
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17. Be patient and don't trade for profit.
When you decide to open a position, do some homework and technical analysis to determine your expected profit value and stop loss line. Trading opportunities exist. Don't force yourself to do some trading. Sometimes traders need to wait for opportunities, observe the market and look for favorable opportunities.
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