合约交易是指交易双方，在交易所通过买卖合约，并根据约定在未来某一特定时间和地点，以特定价格买卖规定数量商品的行为。合约交易是在现货远期合约交易基础上发展起来的，在交易所内买卖标准化合约的一种新型交易方式。

合约交易与现货交易的不同之处在于，现货交易是实实在在地交易商品;而合约交易是以某种商品(如棉花、大豆、石油)，或金融资产(如股票、债券等)为标的物的标准化合约交易。

随着比特币等数字资产的出现, 在数字资产领域也逐渐出现以数字货币为标的物的数字资产衍生品。合约交易的最终目的在于发现真实价格，而不是商品所有权的转移， 我们可以通过买卖合约，回避现货价格变化而带来的不确定风险，除此以外也可以通过对合约进行套利或投机来获利。

Introduction of Contract Trading 101:

As companion series of Blockchain 101, issued by Huobi Group, Contract Trading 101 is the beginners guide to understand contract trading-- a practical tool for hedge, arbitrage and speculation.

Ep 1 What is contract trading ?

Contract trading is the act of the two trading parties to buy or sell contracts at the exchange, in which it has clarified buyers would buy specified quantities of the commodities at a specific price, a particular time and a fixed place in the future. Developed from Forward Contracts, contract trading is a new type of trading mode to buy and sell standardized contracts at exchanges.

The difference between contract trading and spot transaction is that spot transaction literally trades commodities, while contract trading is a standardized contract trading regarding certain commodities as underlying assets, like special goods (such as cotton, soybeans, oil) or financial assets (such as stocks, bonds, etc.).

There have been various digital assets derivatives using cryptocurrencies as underlying assets, since Bitcoin issued. The ultimate goal of contract trading is to find the fair price instead of transferring commodities’ ownership. By purchasing and selling contracts, we can avoid the uncertain risks caused by the fluctuation of spot prices. In addition, we can also take profits from the contracts via arbitrage or speculation.