★ Contract standardization
Both the content of the contract and the delivery level of the subject matter are uniformly stipulated. It is standardization that makes futures contracts easier to perform and reduces all kinds of disputes when performing contracts. For example, the copper futures contract will stipulate in advance how much copper the seller will hand over when the contract expires, what quality level the copper will reach, where to deliver it and so on. Both the buyer and the seller of the contract must abide by these regulations and conduct transactions in accordance with them. Another advantage of contract standardization is that it promotes market liquidity. Because of the existence of standardization, there is no problem in contract trading, and there is no situation that the contract content is changed because of changing the counterparty. No matter who the counterparty is, the transaction content of the contract remains unchanged.
★ Centralized transaction
Futures contract is a product formulated, issued and listed by the exchange. All of them are publicly traded in organized futures exchanges and are subject to the supervision and management of the exchanges. Buyers and sellers don't talk about prices one-on-one like buying vegetables in the vegetable market, but a large number of buyers and sellers quote their own prices and enter the exchange system, which matches the transaction. There is no essential difference between centralized trading and matchmaking trading and stock trading.
It is worth noting that futures contracts are issued by exchanges, which are different from stocks issued by different listed companies. Therefore, a remarkable feature of futures trading is that the exchange, as the "central counterparty" of buyers and sellers, is the seller of buyers and the buyer of sellers. Our futures trading is equivalent to trading with the exchange, which transfers the profits to the accounts of investors who make money and deducts the losses from the accounts of investors who lose money.
★ Two-way transaction
Two-way trading is a prominent feature of futures trading. In futures trading, we can either buy several futures contracts first and sell them when the time is ripe, or we can sell several futures contracts first and buy and close positions at the right time to earn profits. For example, I can sell copper futures at 80,000 yuan/ton, and copper futures will become 70,000 yuan/ton in a few days, so I can buy copper futures to close my position and earn income. This is also selling at a high price and buying at a low price to get the bid-ask difference, but the order is to sell at a high price first and then buy at a low price.
★ Margin trading
Margin trading is the most basic system and the most distinctive feature of futures trading. Margin is a certain proportion of the value of futures contracts. When investors conduct futures trading, they do not need to pay the full contract value, but only pay part of the funds as performance guarantee. The deposit, just like the deposit paid when we signed the house purchase contract, is the security deposit for the performance of this contract when it expires. Because futures trading is a two-way transaction, both buyers and sellers need to perform their duties at maturity. As long as you choose to open a position, you need to pay a deposit as a performance bond.
★T+0
Different from the T+ 1 settlement method of stock trading, futures all adopt the T+0 method, and several or even hundreds of positions can be opened and closed on the same day. This method ensures that leveraged futures trading can stop losses in time and avoid risks.