On April 10, 2024, FOW Trading Amsterdam 2024 was successfully held in the Netherlands, one of the early places of origin of futures trading. For the first time, Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) participated in FOW Trading Amsterdam as an exhibitor and shared the latest developments of China’s futures market in recent years, attracting wide attention from various participants of the event.

This is the 14th year that FOW held this premier event for the derivatives trading community in Amsterdam. This year’s themes focus on trends and innovations in derivatives markets, European interest rate derivatives, European equity derivatives, Asian investment opportunities, advances in trading technology, etc. The FOW Trading Amsterdam 2024 brought together more than 300 worldwide participants from banks, proprietary traders, asset management companies, technology providers, etc.

In recent years, China’s futures market kept opening up. By now, SHFE has 6 specified products (also known as “international products”) and 16 QFI-accessible products, covering energy, metal, rubber, shipping, etc. The number of overseas investors and their participation kept increasing. In 2023, overseas traders accounted for more than 30% both in the average daily trading volume and open interest of Shanghai crude oil futures. In August, 2023, China’s first shipping futures product “Containerized Freight Index (Europe Service) Futures” was listed on Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE, a subsidiary and international platform of SHFE). This is not only China’s first service-oriented futures product, but also China’s first cash-settled index futures product listed on a commodity futures exchange, which is also open to global investors, further expanding the mix of products open to overseas investors. The product has also gained wide attention from the market.

To make full use of this opportunity to introduce China’s futures market to global investors, SHFE participated in the panel named “Trading Asia – Trends and Opportunities for Global Investors” during the FOW event, shared the distinctive advantages and opportunities of China’s futures market, and answered questions of most interest to global investors, such as the access modes and business rules on China’s market, etc. Various participants expressed strong interest for China's futures market and SHFE's products. In particular, the Containerized Freight Index (Europe Service) Futures, which is listed on INE and reflects the transportation costs for container shipping routes between China and Europe, drew most attention from European participants.

An SHFE representative commented that, moving forward, SHFE will further diversify its product mix, optimize market rules and mechanisms, and provide global investors with an effective and convenient toolkit of price discovery and risk management.