期货合同是标准化的在交易所交易，远期一般是OTC市场非标准化合同，且合同中也不注明保证金

主要区别是场内和场外；还有一个是期货有盯市 marking to market， 保证金交易

Forward contract and futures contract can both be used for hedging purpose. However, forward contract is tailor made between clients and banks organized over the counter. The hedging strategy in turn adopted by banks to shut down their risk exposure is exactly one-for-one (one forward for one underlying). On the other hand, futures contract is standardized contract traded in the futures exchange. The marking to market mechanism makes default risk impossible and makes one able to hedge his futures position outstanding by taking a position of opposite direction in the underlying asset to the amount of exp^(-rT), where r is the cost of carry. As for futures contract, since positions are closed and re-created over time implied by marking-to-market process, interest is not calculated in the same way as that of the forward contract. But it can be proved that the futures should be priced as much as the forward with homogeneous terms if the term structure is flat and the interest is independent of the price. The proof is based on no arbitrage assumption.

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-5-29 3:17:18编辑过]

建议你读一下ROBERT JARROW和STUART TURNBULL写的DERIVATIVE SECURITIES这本书

除了234楼说的那些外，二者的定价原理和公式也有所不同

做几个题目,巩固一下.

assume the following information:

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90-day us interest rate 4%

90-day malaysian interest rate 3%

90-day forward rate of malaysian ringgit $.400

spot rate of malaysian ringgit $.404

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assume that santa barbara co.in the united states will need 300000 ringgit in 90days .it wishes to hedge this payables position .would it be better off using a forwatd hedge or a money market hedge?substantiate you answer.