How can I buy or sell mini futures?
If you want to buy mini-futures, you first need a securities account – either with a broker or a bank like Vontobel* or Societe Generale. Since mini-futures belong to the speculative asset classes, investors must be familiar with the risks of financial futures transactions. Before purchasing the first mini-future, the custodian bank ensures that investors are familiar with the risk of the heavily leveraged products. As a rule, obtaining the so-called financial futures ability is not a major hurdle. Either investors can prove that they have already traded speculative financial products in the past. Alternatively, the bank or broker will provide risk information for your attention or refer to the relevant online pages on which the investor must confirm that they are familiar with the subject.
In general, mini futures are just as easy to trade as other derivatives or warrants. Provided that they have a custody account and the ability to deal in financial futures, investors can choose the right product from the issuer. The securities identification number (WKN) of the mini-future is required to ensure unequivocal identification. The product can then be purchased during stock exchange opening hours on specialized certificate exchanges or over-the-counter directly from the issuer.
The product is also traded in the cash market or over the counter. As long as the stop-loss threshold is not touched and the mini-future is being traded, the issuers ensure that trading remains liquid and always set selling and redemption prices that are in line with the market. Owners of mini-futures can therefore part with their product at any time. If the sale via the stock exchange cannot be completed within a short period of time due to a lack of buy or sell orders, the transaction is settled directly with the issuer.
If a mini-future touches the stop-loss threshold, trading in the product is discontinued. When this threshold is reached, the issuer terminates the hedging transactions as quickly as possible. This should usually be done within 60 minutes. In a few cases – especially in the case of extreme and rapid price changes – it is possible that the hedging transactions are dissolved very close to the exchange-traded base price, although a clearer buffer was planned between the stop-loss threshold and the base price. In this case, the remaining amount may be so small that the investor almost suffers a total loss.
Our recommendation: Although mini-futures are long-term investments, the intrinsic value of the mini-future falls the longer the investor holds it. This effect is due to daily financing costs, with which the issuer pays interest on his “credit” for the investor.