Before investing in futures, we need to understand, what are futures? I believe that friends who want to know what futures are must have heard about the stock market to some extent. In fact, we do understand stocks very well, but futures are a bit obscure and difficult to understand. Some proprietary words, such as short, long, long, short, margin, leverage, delivery date, and contract period. I believe it is difficult for friends who have just come into contact with it to understand the principle. Below I will use a very simple example to help friends who have just come into contact with futures understand what futures are in five minutes.

I believe everyone is interested in the most typical crude oil futures trading. We will use crude oil futures, the most typical commodity in the futures market, as an example. There are many countries in the world that produce oil, such as the Middle East? Russia? The United States? Africa? They all produce it, but consumers can't travel all over the world, and the prices are not uniform in every place. Therefore, in order to facilitate management, these countries established an organization called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. They agreed to concentrate all the crude oil on the earth in a limited number of places (exchanges) for trading together. The relatively large exchanges are in the United States and the United Kingdom. In this way, everyone only needs to go to the exchange to buy and sell crude oil, instead of traveling all over the world. This not only facilitates consumers to purchase crude oil, but also facilitates unified pricing and unified management.

This transaction is also very simple. The merchant's quotation? For example, if you buy a barrel of crude oil at US$50, you can buy a barrel of crude oil for US$50. This is a spot transaction. In fact, physical spot is no different from buying and selling things in our lives. . Of course, if you buy a barrel of oil, you may not be able to move it back that day, so you discuss with the merchant whether you can store it in your warehouse first, and I will drive to load it back tomorrow. The merchant said, "Okay, but I can't keep it for you for free. You have to pay me a storage fee. You have to pay me $1 for a barrel of oil per night. This is what is called the overnight fee in spot trading." Then the next day you go to the market to transport your oil, but you find that today’s oil price has risen to 60 US dollars a barrel, so you sell your oil on the market for 60 US dollars. In this way? Except for the price you pay In addition to the overnight fee? You earned $9 in this spot transaction.

But sometimes there are more oil buyers and less oil sellers. Maybe the oil inventory is not enough, so many people make a trip in vain. Later, the merchant came up with a solution. He said, you sign a contract with me first, and the price will be today's US$50 a barrel. When our crude oil arrives next month, no matter what the price is, you bring the contract and I will give it to you. A barrel of oil. Some people see that oil is so scarce and are afraid that the price will rise next month, so they sign a contract with the merchant. When the oil comes next month, no matter what the oil price is, you will get a barrel of oil for $50. , if the market price next month is 60 US dollars, then if you sell it, you will earn 10 US dollars. If there is a lot of crude oil next month and the price drops to $40, then you will lose $10. This is futures trading. But no matter whether you make a loss or a profit, since you only have a contract in your hand, you do not need to pay overnight fees for futures, which virtually saves a lot of costs. This is why everyone prefers to speculate in futures. One of the reasons.

Let’s talk about what is long and what is short. Let’s take crude oil futures as an example. Since crude oil prices continue to fluctuate with market conditions, some people are wondering if there is a possibility of making a profit from the price difference. When the market conditions are good, of course, you can stock up normally and wait for appreciation transactions to sell them to make profits. This is what we call going long. But when the market conditions slowly get worse and oil prices become cheaper and cheaper, how do you make profits? Later, someone studied a method. He first borrowed a barrel of oil from an oil seller, and then immediately went to the market to sell it at the prevailing transaction price for $50. Then, when the oil price dropped to $40 next month, He bought another barrel of oil from the market and returned it to the boss. In this way, he made money during this drop in oil prices, which is what we call a short position.

So what is leverage? Zhang San is a very poor man, but he is very familiar with the oil seller. He only has 50 US dollars, but he feels that the price of crude oil is about to rise, so he discusses with the boss, I will pay you for a barrel of oil first. For a deposit, you sell me 100 barrels of oil first, and I will give you the remaining money after I sell the oil next month. The boss agreed to him in order to sell the oil. Next month, Zhang San sold the 100 barrels of oil at a price of 60 US dollars a barrel and earned 6,000 US dollars. In addition to returning the outstanding payment to the boss, Zhang San used 50 US dollars in this transaction. The principal made a net profit of 1,000 US dollars. This is what we call leveraged trading. The leverage of this transaction is 100 times.

So you see, futures are not as mysterious as you think. Do you now have a rough understanding of the rules of futures and spot trading and how to make profits? In fact, futures trading is not difficult to understand. What is difficult is accurately predicting the future trends and situations of the market. If it is bearish, we should buy short orders to make a profit, and if it is bullish, we can buy long orders to make a profit. For those of us who don’t have much money in our hands, futures are the project with the least investment and the greatest returns. With 10,000 yuan, you can earn 1 million yuan in profit. Of course, huge profits also come with a lot of risks. In this ever-changing trading place, some people have gone bankrupt, while others have transformed from local chickens to phoenixes.

There are friends around me who used tens of thousands of yuan to make millions within a year, and there are also friends who used futures as gambling and borrowed loan sharks to play, and eventually their wives and children broke up. Some people say that futures are a harmful thing, but they don’t actually think so. What harms them is the greedy heart that never knows how to be satisfied. I made 100,000 and gambled 200,000. I made 200,000 and thought of 1 million. You are not a master if you can buy, but you are a master if you can sell. On the way up, I don’t know how to stop profit, and I always think about making a little more profit. On the way down, I don’t know how to stop loss, and I always think about what if it rebounds? In the end, there was nothing but chicken feathers on the ground.

Of course, even if you understand all the knowledge about futures, choosing a platform is one of the most important things. Since the domestic futures market is not standardized, there are many small platforms and black platforms. Finally, You can't even get your principal back. When we choose a platform, we must choose a regular large platform. If you are a novice, I recommend IC?markets based on the MT4 platform that I also use. This is one of the more mainstream platforms at present, with low handling fees. The threshold is also low, with a minimum of 200 US dollars, you can do real trading operations. Newbies can use simulated trading to practice their skills. I believe they can understand the futures trading rules and profit methods in a day or two.

Mainstream agents? IC Markets based on the MT4 platform

In addition, I would like to share with you some very useful resource sites. Since Du Niang likes to swallow links, she can only use pictures. Send it out. In addition, I have recently established a new futures and foreign exchange exchange group. At present, I am the only one hahaha. Everyone is welcome to join the group to communicate. I will share with you if there is an opportunity~.

Practical Resource Site for Futures Investment

Finally, I wish everyone can gain something from futures and foreign exchange investment~