The past and the possible futures of Futures Studies: Some thoughts on Ziauddin Sardar's ‘the namesake’

The need to explain the concepts and terms used in Futures Studies, as in other sciences, has existed for a long time. But the necessity to do so has increased since the Second World War and is clearly important in recent debates among different groups involved in the field. This article traces the historical timeline of some of these terms in relation to the social and cultural contexts in which they were coined and first used. It argues that concepts and terms used in Futures Studies are mainly of Western origin and suggests that research should be conducted in different social and cultural contexts for concepts and terms embedded, and possibly used, in cultures different from that of the West. The article also suggests that some sort of ‘liberation movement’ should be started in this direction.     

证券、期货犯罪防范体系构建探析——以股指期货交易为切入点

股指期货是连接证券市场和期货市场的纽带,为证券市场提供了有效的避险工具。通过对股指期货犯罪行为的分析,笔者认为,操纵股指期货的行为必须纳入刑法规制范畴,同时还应当警惕并防范股指期货挂牌交易后因设计缺陷所产生的"新型老鼠仓"行为。并且单独罪名无法有效防止犯罪行为发生,应当建立综合性证券、期货犯罪防范体系。     

Futures: A question of values-consciousness-choices

How important is the quality of values, worldviews, consciousness and choices in the theory and praxis of futures studies and the creation of possible futures? This paper is based on an unpublished Ph.D. Thesis (that is now accessible on the ADT database on the internet), a case study about the evolution of values, consciousness and choices in 12 Australian women's lives. It contains a summary of the impact of the Women's Liberation Movement on these women's values and consciousness, their current values and consciousness, as well as some of their hopes and concerns for the future. Many of the value priorities these women share stand in remarkable contrast to mainstream patriarchal ethics. These women's values also find themselves in uneasy relation to patriarchal worldviews, future visions and futures studies and in important ways surpass them. Based on my research, I propose questions and suggestions in regards to futures studies.     

Index Futures Trading and Stock Return Volatility: Evidence from the Introduction of Mid Cap 400 Index Futures

The MidCap 400 stock index is used to provide new evidence on the relation between stock index futures trading and stock return volatility. The study documents a significant decrease in return volatility and systematic risk, and a significant increase in trading volume for the MidCap 400 stocks after the introduction of the MidCap index. A control sample of medium-capitalization stocks, however, exhibits similar contemporaneous changes in these measures. The MidCap stocks and the control stocks also experience a significant decrease in volatility and an increase in volume after the introduction of MidCap 400 index futures. Thus, the study finds no difference in the behavior of the MidCap 400 stocks and the control stocks and no evidence of a relation between index futures trading and volatility in the stock market.     

Informed Futures Trading and Price Discovery: Evidence from Taiwan Futures and Stock Markets

This article focuses on the information effects between the futures market and its spot market. Intraday data are used to investigate the lead-lag relationships between the returns and trading activity of Taiwan stock index futures and the spot returns. We focus on the transmission direction and the sources of information. Consistent with most previous studies, our results show that other than the contemporaneous relationship predicted by carry-cost theory and efficient market theory, futures returns significantly lead spot returns, which implies that informed trades may occur in the futures market. Using private transaction information, net open buy, as a proxy for futures trading activity and distinguishing different types of futures traders, we find that foreign institutional traders are the major source of informed trades because their trading has predictive power for future movements in both spot and futures prices. Traders in other categories are information laggards.     

期货投资基金与期货市场发展探讨

现代期货市场在套期保值和价格发现功能基础上演绎出丰富的功能类型。在发达国家,期货投资基金规模庞大,具有成熟的交易策略和交易技术,已经成为期货市场所有功能有效发挥的中坚力量。中国要全面提升期货市场功能,确保价格安全和产业安全,应加快探索期货投资基金的具体模式、市场结构和法律框架,将期货投资产业链中的各要素进行重新整合,确立不同品种期货的产业集群式发展模式。为此,政府应主动打破路径依赖,实现以投资者结构多样化为基础的期货市场全面创新。     

Futures sustainability

This article presents a strategic framework to guide public policy with respect to very long-term futures. The framework is based upon three fundamental principles. Threats to meeting the principles are assessed. Integrated planning responses to overcoming the threats are proposed. Significant changes in economic, political and social theory and organization required to support the strategic responses are discussed. It is argued that human civilization would need to pass through the mythic ‘singularity’ on the path to futures sustainability.     

期指预解

2009年1月8日,证监会新闻发言人表示,国务院已原则同意开展证券公司融资融券业务试点和推出股指期货品种。一块巨石投入资本市场,水面霎时炸锅……     

上海期货交易所金属铜国际定价能力研究

近年来,上海期货交易所作为金属铜的三大国际期货交易市场之一,市场机制日渐成熟,价格发现功能日益增强,但其国际定价能力到底有多大,与伦敦金属交易所和纽约商业交易所的联动关系如何,逐渐受到国际市场关注。本文借助计量分析方法,在相关系数、协整关系、Granger成因、方差分解等方面研究三大交易所铜期货价格之间的相互联系。实证结果表明,伦敦金属期货交易所铜期货的国际定价能力居第一位,上海期货交易所铜期货的国际定价能力在2005年我国汇率制度改革后超越纽约商业交易所居第二位,上海市场期铜价格对其他两大期货市场存在显著的影响力。     

资产证券化：我国资本市场的发展方向

资产证券化在20世纪70年代产生后，经过近40年的发展，目前已经成为全球发展最为迅速的金融产品。本文从资产证券化的内涵出发，通过研究资产证券化发展的国际经验，结合我国的实际情况，对阻碍我国资产证券化发展的原因进行了探讨，并从发行者、投资者以及中介机构等角度分析了我国发展资产证券化产品的必然性。     

Futures beyond dystopia

The speculative imagination is an higher-order human capacity that can productively explore the not-here and the not-yet. To some extent it is already doing so. But these explorations are limited by prevailing cultural assumptions. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that there are other arenas to explore that, were they taken seriously, could exert sufficient symbolic ‘pull' to qualify as desirable images of futures. They could then begin to act as ‘magnets' for the realisation of possibilities that are presently obscured.