Views and comments: commodity exchange and stock exchange in an Islamic economy

An owned good can be sold if it is indestructible and in accordance with a mutually acceptable contract. Speculation on stocks should be curtailed through a higher short-term capital gains tax or through a transfer fee. The Ulama should look into the practice of 'short sale.' Islam permits both futures and forward contracts as long as the former do not involve deliberate attempts to avoid the prohibition of riba. Option buyers may not buy underlying securities at specified prices. Futures markets on the sale of options are permissible as long as they are not used to create synthetic interest-bearing securities or to damage the well-being of a Muslim nation's economy.