In recent years, illegal futures activities have been in a state of frequent occurrence, especially in the name of commodity spot trading venues have been repeatedly banned, seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of investors, damaging the reputation of the futures market, and causing adverse effects in society. In the first half of 2017, the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on Cleaning Up and Rectifying Various Trading Venues held the third meeting and the "Looking Back" Work Exchange Meeting respectively, and deployed relevant policies and measures to regulate local trading venues. At the same time, some district courts have also successively rendered judgments on relevant illegal futures trading activities in accordance with the law, which provides a realistic reference for investors to identify illegal futures trading activities and has a strong warning effect.

Take an electronic trading platform as an example. As a trading venue retained after liquidation and rectification, the platform relies on spot and adopts standardized contract bidding electronic matchmaking, T+0, daily debt-free settlement, leverage, margin, forced liquidation and other trading methods, and collects handling fees as a profit model. However, Xie Moumou, deputy general manager of the platform, Zheng Moumou, Chen Moumou and other relevant personnel involved in the case developed so-called "market makers" without authorization, and outsourced some trading varieties and businesses such as xylitol, liquid alkali, glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, formaldehyde, oxaldehyde and oxalic acid of the platform. These market makers continue to develop agents downward, they jointly through the Internet, WeChat, telephone and other ways of public marketing, using the background data provided by the platform, using the first provision of "correct intelligence", with small profits to induce customers to increase investment, and then provide false market information, reverse price manipulation, resulting in investors large losses. The market maker and the platform divide the investor's loss between 85% and 15%, and the market maker divides 85% of the client's loss between it and the agent. According to statistics, Xie, Zheng, Chen and others jointly obtained illegal benefits totaling 7972.32 million yuan. In November 2015, the People's Court sentenced them to life imprisonment, 11 years in prison, and <> years in prison for fraud, and were fined accordingly.

In cases that have occurred or been adjudicated, criminals often use commodity spot trading as a pretext to induce investors to participate in illegal futures trading activities, resulting in property losses to investors. Investors should maintain a high degree of vigilance in this regard and pay special attention to the following two points: First, commodity spot trading usually adopts the "one-on-one" method of negotiation between buyers and sellers to determine the variety, price, quantity, delivery date and other contract terms, rather than adopting the centralized trading methods such as collective bidding, continuous bidding, electronic matchmaking, anonymous trading, market makers and other prohibited in Guo Fa [2011] No. 38 and Guo Ban Fa [2012] No. 37; Second, commodity spot transactions usually require physical delivery, rather than settling the bid-ask difference. If you are advised to participate in "commodity spot trading" that is inconsistent with the above characteristics, please beware of getting involved in illegal futures trading activities and report it to the local public security bureau.

Article 6 of the Regulations on the Administration of Futures Trading clearly stipulates that without the approval of the State Council or the futures regulatory authority under the State Council, no unit or individual may establish a futures trading venue or organize futures trading and related activities in any form. However, in practice, because of its special trading system, futures trading is often used by criminals to set up spot trading platforms or centers under various names, which is suspected of the crime of illegal operation. In fact, to identify illegal futures activities, we only need to consider from the following four perspectives: First, identify the qualifications of the subject. According to the aforementioned provisions, the development of futures business needs to be approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and obtain the corresponding business qualifications, otherwise it will be an illegal institution. Investors can log on to the website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the website of the China Futures Association to inquire about the information of legal futures operators and their practitioners, or verify the relevant institutions and personnel information with the local securities regulatory bureau. The second is to identify marketing methods. Some lawbreakers like to regard themselves as "teachers" and "gods", and often issue sharp words such as making a lot of money as long as they follow him, only emphasizing profits and not paying attention to risks. Investors need to know that any investment in financial products, including futures, follows the basic principle that "high returns are inevitably accompanied by high risks", and there is no good product that "pie in the sky". Legitimate futures operators are guided by the suitability system and pay attention to "selling the right products to the right investors", and are not allowed to make such false publicity. Investors should be vigilant when encountering such exaggerated propaganda. The third is to identify Internet websites. The URLs of illegal futures websites often use letters and numbers with no special meaning, or use counterfeiting methods to change or add letters and numbers to the websites of legitimate futures operators. Investors can check the websites of legal futures operators through the website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission or the website of the China Futures Association to identify illegal futures websites. Investors should not log in to illegal futures websites to avoid falling into traps and being deceived. The fourth is to identify the receiving account number. Legal futures operators can only conduct business in the name of the company, and can only open bank accounts in the name of the company, while illegal institutions often open collection accounts in the name of individuals. If an investor is asked to deposit money into an account opened in his or her own name, the investor can decisively refuse.