Future's bright

China is about to launch stock index futures trading in Shanghai. Only a hefty margin requirement will stop retail investors from betting excessively. Kathleen Kearney reports

"We're ready," says Zhang Xiaogang, head of research and development at the China Financial Futures Exchange (Cffex) in Shanghai. "As far as the exchange is concerned, we have set out our rules, our systems and our training programmes, as well as conducting mock trading for almost a year." The exchange has the capacity to handle 10 million trades a day, which at current prices would equal daily