As the precious metal market at Osaka Dojima Exchange (ODEX) was set up on March 27, choice for precious metal by customers in Japan increased: that is gold (Osaka and Dojima Exchange), gold mini and gold rolling-spot (Osaka Exchange), platinum (Osaka and Dojima Exchange), platinum mini and platinum rolling-spot (Osaka Exchange) and palladium (Osaka Exchange).
However, option trading on gold futures at Osaka Exchange has been forgotten. Its start was on May 17, 2004 in Tokyo Commodity Exchange for Industry in those day, the predecessor of Osaka Exchange. The gold option transaction hasn’t　been traded for a long time. Before it was listed, Tokyo Grain Exchange, that was merged to Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) in 2013, set up option transactions of soybean and corn but none of them took root. One of the reasons was supposed that degree of proficiency for option trading by salespersons was low, however, underlying cause was the actual circumstances that order of option trading wasn’t reflected in performance.
In March, 1993, just thirty years ago, the voice by salespersons who were interviewed anonymously were published on our newspaper. It said that although the salespersons had eagerly waited for it to be listed, no matter how much they took orders it didn’t　become performance. The reason was circumstances around traders. In case of futures transactions, margin money is deposited to traders but in case of option transactions, there is no margin money to be deposited.
Option trading isn’t　difficult but useful choice if one can understand its essence. Is there anything that can be done about it from now on ?

（Futures Tribune・issued March 28, 2023・no.3206）