China Aims to Curb Futures-Trading Speculation

Market regulators in China on Thursday admonished domestic futures-trading houses to curtail overseas speculation, amid signs that its domestic exchanges are facing their own problems during a tumultuous period for global commodity markets.

Chinese companies licensed to trade in futures markets overseas should limit their activity to legitimate hedging, and avoid speculation, said Jiang Yang, assistant to the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

'The recent global credit crisis has caused sharp volatility in commodity futures prices, causing high risks for businesses,' Mr. Jiang told senior executives of the 25 Chinese firms permitted to trade overseas, according to a statement issued by the industry watchdog.

Such statements aren't unusual, as spectacular blowups in the past have sometimes lost Chinese trading houses large sums.

The regulatory notice comes amid a selloff in commodity prices that has jostled markets around the globe. It also offers a reminder of the important interplay between the tightly controlled Chinese markets and their more-open counterparts elsewhere.

China has ambitions to transform its three futures markets into some of the world's most important trading venues, but has so far been reluctant to allow full access to its markets by foreigners. Yet, because China is the world's biggest user of key industrial commodities such as copper, it has allowed domestic firms to participate on global markets like the London Metal Exchange.

Those links open the way for China's traders to structure not-entirely-legal deals that give foreigners some exposure to China's exchanges.

The difference between copper prices in London and Shanghai has emerged as one of the most important indicators for global metals markets and the basis for an important arbitrage trade that involves taking a bet on both markets simultaneously.

It is an open industry secret that some Chinese trading houses take risky bets that play prices of one market off those of another, and structure deals that allow foreign firms to do the same.

Global commodity price drops have put unusual strain on China's exchanges, and the firms that use them. The domestic exchanges are bound by local trading rules aimed at limiting price volatility, rules that in recent weeks have left Chinese futures prices far higher than prices of the same commodities traded elsewhere.

中国的市场监管机构周四告诫国内期货交易公司，要缩减在海外的投机性交易，而目前也有迹象显示，在当前全球大宗商品市场大幅振荡的同时，中国国内的期货交易所也面临着自己的问题。

中国证券监督管理委员会主席助理姜洋说，持有海外期货市场交易许可证的中国公司应只限于从事合法的套期保值交易，避免从事投机性交易。

据中国证监会网站发表的一份声明称，姜洋对25家上述公司的有关负责人说，近来全球性信贷危机导致商品期货价格剧烈波动，企业面临的经营风险增加。

这样的声明并非不同寻常，因为中国从事期货交易的公司以往也曾因投机性交易失败而蒙受了巨额损失。

在中国证监会发出这一告诫之际，全球各地市场的大宗商品价格正在出现大幅跳水。证监会的声明也提醒人们，受到严密控制的中国市场和世界那些更具开放性的交易市场间有很大相互关联性。

虽然中国有雄心使其三大期货市场跻身世界最重要的交易场所之列，但到目前为止一直不愿意向外国投资者全面开放国内期货市场。不过，由于中国是铜等重要工业原料的世界最大用户，政府已允许国内公司参与伦敦金属交易所(London Metal Exchange)等全球性市场的交易。

这使中国的交易员有机会在境外市场上达成一些不完全合法的交易，从而使海外投资者也有机会参与中国的期货交易市场。

伦敦市场和上海市场间铜价的差异已经成了全球金属市场的最重要指标之一，并已成了一项重要套利交易的基础，这种交易就是同时押宝两个市场。

中国一些从事期货交易的公司在市场上下高风险赌注已经是业内公开的秘密，这种交易就是利用两个市场在价格上的不同步而渔利。它们还通过一些交易使外国公司也能从事这种套利活动。

全球商品价格下跌给中国的期货交易所以及用它们进行交易的公司造成非同寻常的压力。国内期货交易所被中国一些旨在限制价格波动的法规所束缚，这种束缚使最近几周一些大宗商品在中国期货市场的价格远高于海外市场的价格。