Definition: Futures is a tradable commodity. Unlike spot, futures are not commodities, but tradable contracts. The subject matter of this contract can be popular products or financial assets.
Delivery: the delivery date of futures can be one week, one month, three months or even one year;
Transaction classification: it can be divided into commodity futures, stock index futures, interest rate futures, foreign exchange futures and metal futures.
The characteristics of futures:
Two-way trading: futures can be traded in two directions, that is, futures can be long or short;
Low cost: when investors conduct futures trading, they don't need to pay stamp duty and other taxes like buying stocks, just need to pay the formalities;
Leverage: In the futures market, investors do not need to put all their funds into the market when trading. In China's futures trading, investors only need to pay 5% margin to trade, which makes the leverage of futures very large and the entry threshold lower;
Short trading time: the trading system of futures is T+0, that is, investors can buy and sell futures immediately, so the shortening of trading time can greatly improve the utilization rate of investors' funds.
One of the futures basics: understand futures and futures market futures. As the name implies, in Chinese, futures means the future, futures means the future commodities, and buying and selling futures means buying and selling future commodities. The market for futures trading is called the futures market. As far as gold futures are concerned, it is the gold futures trading opened by Shanghai Futures Exchange (referred to as the last issue). Zhengshang Institute is equivalent to the person who contracts the gold market. Everyone trades in this gold market, and the former office draws a handling fee from each transaction.
The second foundation of futures introduction: understanding the futures contract period, also known as futures contract, refers to the standardized contract formulated by the futures exchange and agreed to deliver a certain amount and quality of the subject matter at a certain time in the future. Futures are single-handedly, and the primary contract represents a certain number of subject matter, such as primary copper futures representing 5 tons of copper, primary corn futures representing 10 tons of corn, and the financial value of primary stock index futures representing "index point ×300 yuan". Buying and selling futures contracts is the real commodity or value represented by buying and selling.
The third foundation of futures introduction: Understand all four regular futures exchanges in China, namely: China Financial Futures Exchange (CICC), Shanghai Futures Exchange (last issue), Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange) and Dalian Commodity Exchange (Dalian Commodity Exchange). There is also a trading center-Shanghai Energy Trading Center, which is an exchange to promote crude oil futures.
The fourth foundation of futures introduction: understanding futures trading terms There are many futures trading terms, the most important of which are margin, delivery, futures leverage, opening, closing, settlement price, price limit, opening price and closing price.