What Is the Meaning of Spot Trading?

There are two major classifications of security market from which investors can earn. These are futures market and spot market. While the former involves contracts based on future prices and no deliveries, the latter is a place where trades are made with current prices and it involves instant transactions of securities. 

Are you planning to participate in spot trading and don’t know where to start? Keep reading till the end to learn more about spot trading. 

What is Spot Trading?

The process of buying or selling an asset at the current market price for instant delivery is called spot trading. Also known as spot transaction, this trade occurs when a trader/investor purchases or sells commodities, foreign currencies, or any financial instrument at a given date. This is the spot date. The spot date refers to the day when a spot transaction is typically settled, meaning when the funds involved in the transaction are transferred. The spot date is calculated from the horizon, which is the date when the transaction is initiated.

What is a Spot Market?

A spot market is a marketplace for financial instruments or commodities where immediate settlements of orders and instant deliveries take place. However, in a practical scenario, the spot market requires two business days (T+2) to process the transaction successfully.

This marketplace is also known as the cash market or liquid market as traders settle payments upfront, unlike future markets. There are two main types of spot markets – over-the-counter (OTC) and organised market exchange. Exchanges are spot markets that enable electronic trading.

Unlike future or non-spot markets, payments and trades occur on the same day. Furthermore, trades in Indian spot markets follow the T+2 day rule. This implies the deliveries will occur two days later. However, steps are being taken to make spot transactions happen in T+1 day.

Physical trading of commodities usually involves settlement with cash by buyers and delivery of receipts for commodities held in authorised warehouses. The commodities delivered in this way are evaluated by an assayer before the settlement of the transaction. This means that instant delivery is not practically possible and the actual settlement takes around 5-7 days.

When future contracts are about to expire, they become cash trades as buyers and sellers need to complete the transactions immediately.

What Are Types of Spot Markets?

There are two types of spot markets where a trader can participate in spot trading.

• Market Exchanges

Buyers and sellers meet and interact to bid on and present financial instruments and commodities to trade. The trading takes place on an electronic trading platform or a trading floor. Electronic trading platforms enable traders to instantly determine the price of an asset in order to serve a large number of traders simultaneously.

Brokers,  who are also market makers, carry out these trading processes. In exchanges, buyers’ bids and sellers’ offers determine the contract prices. These are subject to instant change in every millisecond or minute. Therefore, a spot trader must be minutely aware of the rise and drop of prices to make his/her best bid.

• Over-the-Counter (OTC)

In OTC trading, the trade of securities and financial instruments happens between buyers and sellers directly. In this marketplace, participants meet to trade bilaterally without any involvement of a third party. There is no requirement for standardisation of assets like in the case of exchange spot markets. 

Difference between Spot Trading and Future Trading

As mentioned earlier, the spot market is a marketplace where buying and selling of contracts and deliveries happen immediately. Here, goods and financial assets are sold for cash and the immediate delivery process begins. Mandis are a kind of spot market in India where the trading of physical commodities happens in exchange for immediate cash. 

Future trading, on the other hand, deals with the transaction of financial instruments on a specified date. Traders sign a futures contract with an agreed-upon date and price to sell or purchase the asset. In the futures exchange market, these contracts are standardised, allowing traders to speculate upon the future prices of the underlying asset.

In spot markets you can easily purchase or sell commodities on the same day prices are low or high. However, in future trading, you must purchase or sell commodities on the given date regardless of their price. This implies, traders are at high risk of incurring losses or earning substantial gains from future markets owing to the unpredictable nature of this marketplace. 

Final Word

This blog has hopefully given you the information you needed on spot trading. Traders need to keep in mind every aspect of spot trading before investing here. Investors should also know that in spot markets, assets have a spot price and a forward price which later acts as future prices in future contracts. With the right guidance, you can yield substantial benefits from spot trading. 

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