Derivatives Trading I
FAQ’s
1. What are derivatives?
Derivatives, such as futures or options, are financial contracts which derive their value from a spot price, which is called the “underlying”. For example, wheat farmers may wish to enter into a contract to sell their harvest at a future date to eliminate the risk of a change in prices by that date. Such a transaction would take place through a forward or futures market. This market is the “derivatives market”, and the prices of this market would be driven by the spot market price of wheat which is the “underlying”. The term “contracts” is often applied to denote the specific traded instrument, whether it is a derivative contract in wheat, gold or equity shares. The world over, derivatives are a key part of the financial system. The most important contract types are futures and options, and the most important underlying markets are equity, treasury bills, commodities, foreign exchange, real estate etc.
2. What is a forward contract?
In a forward contract, two parties agree to do a trade at some future date, at a stated price and quantity. No money changes hands at the time the deal is signed.
3. Why is forward contracting useful?
Forward contracting is very valuable in hedging and speculation. The classic hedging application would be that of a wheat farmer forward – selling his harvest at a known price in order to eliminate price risk. Conversely, a bread factory may want to buy bread forward in order to assist production planning without the risk of price fluctuations. If a speculator has information or analysis which forecasts an upturn in a price, then he can go long on the forward market instead of the cash market. The speculator would go long on the forward, wait for the price to rise, and then take a reversing transaction making a profit.
4. What are the problems of forward markets?
Forward markets worldwide are afflicted by several problems:
(a) lack of centralisation of trading,
(b) illiquidity, and
(c) counterparty risk.
In the first two of these, the basic problem is that of too much flexibility and generality. The forward market is like the real estate market in that any two persons can form contracts against each other. This often makes them design terms of the deal which are very convenient in that specific situation for the specific parties, but makes the contracts non-tradeable if more participants are involved. Also the “phone market” here is unlike the centralisation of price discovery that is obtained on an exchange, resulting in an illiquid market place for forward markets. Counterparty risk in forward markets is a simple idea: when one of the two sides of the
transaction chooses to declare bankruptcy, the other suffers. Forward markets have one basic issue: the larger the time period over which the forward contract is open, the larger are the potential price movements, and hence the larger is the counter- party risk. Even when forward markets trade standardized contracts, and hence avoid the problem of illiquidity, the counterparty risk remains a very real problem.
5. What is a futures contract?
Futures markets were designed to solve all the three problems (listed in Question 4) of forward markets. Futures markets are exactly like forward markets in terms of basic economics. However, contracts are and trading is centralized (on a stock exchange). There is no counterparty risk (thanks to the institution of a clearing corporation which becomes counterparty to both sides of each transaction and guarantees the trade). In futures markets, unlike in forward markets, increasing the time to expiration does not increase the counter party risk. Futures markets are highly liquid as compared to the forward markets.
(Contd on Derivatives Trading II)
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Tags: Counterparty, Derivatives, Economics, Equity, Financial System, Foreign Exchange, Forward Contract, Future Contract, Futures, Hedging, Options, Problems, Risk, Speculation, Spot Price, Trading, Underlying
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