Derivatives Flashcards
ow transaction costs are postulated as the reason for the growth
of derivatives
In broad terms, derivatives are used by funds because they
can increase fund returns and/or hedge the risk to the fund of adverse movements in the underlying such as changes in interest rates or the underlying assets
Futures contracts were initially created to
> help producers manage the market risk (hedge) of prices.
If understood and responsibly traded, derivative contracts allow traders to speculate, hedge, and earn arbitrage profit.
Net cost of carry
= Costs of carry - Benefits of carry
Benefits of carry include: Dividends, interest income and convenience yield.
Costs of carry include: Storage costs, insurance and the funding cost.
The value of a swap is equal to the present value of the:
Net cash flows from the swap
> net cash flows would consider the fixed and floating cash flows netted together
A synthetic long put can be created by combining
long call, long bond, and short the underlying
synthetic protective put
A forward contract F0(T), a risk-free bond and a put option on the underlying
binomial option pricing model steps
Step 1 Use the factors to estimate the next two possible prices of the asset
Step 2 Use the asset prices to derive the next two possible option values
Step 3 Compute the risk neutral probability
Step 4 Discount the expected value of the option at the risk-free rate
Types of Derivatives
Definition
- Financial instrument that offers a return based on the return of an underlying
asset - Cash price or spot price
- Price for immediate purchase of the underlying asset
Markets
- Exchange-traded
- Standard terms and features
- Highly regulated
Over-the-counter - Transactions created by two parties anywhere else
Types of Derivatives
Underlying assets
- Equities/Equity index
- Fixed-income instruments
- Interest rate contracts based on some market reference rate (MRR)
- Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) - overnight rate collateralized by US
Treasuries - Euro short term rate (€STR)
- Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA)
- Currencies
- Commodities
- Credit
- Others – e.g. weather, cryptocurrencies, longevity
Derivatives
- Contingent claims
- Forward commitments
Contingent claims
Exchange-traded
* Standard
options on
assets
* Interest rate
options
* Warrants
* Callable bonds
* Convertible
bonds
Over-the-counter
* Standard options on assets
* Interest rate options
* Callable bonds
* Convertible bonds
* Exotic options
Forward commitments
Exchange-traded (futures)
Over-the-counter
* Forward contracts
* FX forwards
* Swaps
* Credit derivatives,
e.g. CDS
Forward commitments
- Agreement to engage in a transaction at a later date at a price agreed today
- Exchange-traded
- Future contracts
- Over-the-counter
- Forward contracts and swaps
- Forward contract
- Agreement between two parties
- One party (the buyer) agrees to buy an underlying asset from the other party (the seller)
at a future date - Price is agreed at the start
- Forward market
- Private and largely unregulated with default risk
- Future
- Public, standardized transaction
- Use of clearing house removes default risk
- Swap
- Agreement between two parties to exchange a series of future cash flows
- Series of forward contracts
- At least one of the cash flows is determined by a later outcome
- Private transactions
Contingent claims
- Obligations arise only if certain conditions are met
- One party may have a choice
- Payoff is dependent on occurrence of a future event
- Options
- One party has the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a
fixed price over a specific period of time - Pay a premium for this right to the option writer
- Call
- Right to buy
- Put
- Right to sell
Other instruments containing options (embedded derivatives)
- Convertible bonds
- Callable bonds
- Issuer holds a call option to buy back the bond before maturity
- Asset-backed securities
- Claim on a pool of securities
- Prepayment feature
- Borrowers may have the right to pay off their debts early
- Option held by the borrower
OTC
Contract terms
Liquidity
Margin
Counterparty risk
reporting
price quotes
hedging
Bespoke: tailored to meet the needs of the investor
Can be limited leading to slower execution
Historically no standardised process; regulation pushing for a more standardised process
Since 2008 global financial crisis, clearing houses are now generally used
Confidentiality
Limited; need to shop around
Specific hedging requirements can be met
Traded on exchange
Contract terms
Liquidity
Margin
Counterparty risk
reporting
price quotes
hedging
Contract specifications standardised by the exchange
Excellent on major contracts
Margin normally required
No member default risk due to clearing house
Market transparency
Highly transparent
Hedges using standardised contracts need to be actively managed
Use of Central Counterparty (CCP)
Step 1: Trade executed on an Swap Execution Facility (SEF)
Step 2: SEF trade information submitted to CCP
Step 3: CCP replaces (novates) existing trade, acting as new counterparty to both
financial intermediaries
Forwards
- Over-the-counter (OTC) futures
- Advantages over futures
- Flexibility
- Wide range of underlying assets
- Disadvantages over futures
- Historically counterparty risk
- Difficulty in closing out
- Long position makes money when market rises
- Short position makes money when market fall
- Zero sum game
Futures
- Exchange traded
- Advantages over futures
- Negligible counterparty risk
- Ease of closing out
- Disadvantages over forwards
- Less flexibility
- Smaller range of underlying assets
- Long position makes money when market rises
- Short position makes money when market fall
- Zero sum game
- Margining
- Initial margin
- Variation margining through ‘marking-to-market’
- Intra-day margin
Swaps
- Firm commitment under which two counterparties exchange a series of cash flows
in the future. - Fixed for floating swap
- The notional principal on the swap is not exchanged but is used to determine
payments - There is no initial cost since the initial value is zero
- The price of the swap (the fixed rate) is determined by solving for the constant
fixed yield that equates the present value of the expected floating payments to the
present value of the fixed payments - As market conditions change and time passes, the mark-to-market value of a
swap will deviate from zero resulting in one counterparty being in a
positive/winning position and the other being in a negative/losing position. - The swap will have many legs which can involve quarterly, semi-annual or annual
settlements - The full terms are negotiated privately between counterparties
- The swap may provide for uncollateralized exposure or terms similar to futures
margining. - An event of default usually triggers swap termination and MTM settlement
Long call (BULLISH)
Intrinsic value
Value at expiration
Profit
Maximum profit
Maximum loss
Breakeven
Max (0, ST - X)
cT
cT - c0
∞
c0
ST* = X + c0
Short call (BEARISH)
Intrinsic value
Value at expiration
Profit
Maximum profit
Maximum loss
Breakeven
Max (0, ST - X)
- cT
- cT + c0
c0
∞
ST* = X + c0
Long put (BEARISH)
Intrinsic value
Value at expiration
Profit
Maximum profit
Maximum loss
Breakeven
(0, X - ST)
pT
pT – p0
X - p0
p0
ST* = X - p0
Short put (BULLISH/ neutral)
Intrinsic value
Value at expiration
Profit
Maximum profit
Maximum loss
Breakeven
(0, X - ST)
-pT
- pT + p0
p0
X - p0
ST* = X - p0
Option premium
- The premium = Intrinsic Value + Time Value
- Time value is positive but declines to zero at expiry
- Long call/put option:
- Long call/put option: Profit = Value - Premium
Options are described as a zero sum game
which means that profit for the
long creates an equal loss for the short and vice versa
Credit default swap
Reference Asset —— Protection Buyer (Swap premium) —— Protection Seller ( Cash payment should default occur)
* Credit event
- Failure to pay (default)
- Bankruptcy
- Debt restructuring
* Reference asset
- May be an individual bond, an index of issuers or a special purpose entity with a debt portfolio, e.g. loans, bonds, mortgages
* Payout
- Cash-settled: Investor receives bond value less recovery rate
* Naked CDS
- Investor buys CDS without owning an underlying bond is seeking to gain from an
increase in the credit spread of an underlying bond
The Benefits of Derivative Markets
- Derivative instruments provide users with the opportunity to allocate, transfer
and/or manage risk without trading the underlying - Cash/Spot market prices for financial instruments and commercial goods and
services are an important source of information for the decision to buy or sell - In many instances issuers and investors face a timing difference between an
economic decision and the ability to transact in the cash market. Derivatives can
be used to bridge this gap
Examples
Issuers
- A retailer my await a shipment of goods priced in a foreign currency before selling
domestic currency to make the payment
- An issuer may want to lock in the cost of future debt in advance of the maturity of an
existing bond
Investors
- An investor may want to capitalize on a market view but not have the cash in hand
to transact in the cash market
- In anticipation of receiving a future dividend an investor may decide today how he/she will reinvest the proceeds in the future
- Derivative instruments serve as a price discovery function beyond the underlying
cash market - Future prices reveal information about the direction of cash markets in the future
- Equity market participants monitor equity index futures prices prior to the stock market opening to get an indication of the direction of cash markets in early trading
- Analysts use interest rate futures markets to understand investor expectations of a
central bank interest rate increase or decrease at a future meeting - Commodity futures prices are a gauge of supply and demand dynamics between
producers, consumers, and investors across maturities
Derivative instruments offer a number of operational advantages to cash or spot
market transactions
1. Transaction costs – commodity derivatives eliminate the need to
transport, insure, and store a physical asset in order to take a position
2. Increased liquidity – derivative markets typically have greater liquidity
as a result of the reduced capital required to create a position
3.Upfront cash requirements – initial margin on futures and premiums on
options are relatively low
4. Short positions – it is easier to take a short position since there is no
need to find a cash asset owner who is willing to lend the underlying asset
for a period of time
NOTE: derivative markets also make it less costly to exploit mispricing/arbitrage
opportunities
The Risks of Derivative Markets
Greater potential for speculative use:
High degree of implicit leverage for some derivative strategies may increase likelihood of financial stress
Lack of transparency:
Derivatives add portfolio complexity and may not be well understood by stakeholders
Basis risk:
Potential divergence between the expected value of a derivative instrument versus an underlying or hedged
transaction
Liquidity risk:
Potential divergence between the cash flow timing of a derivative instrument versus an underlying or hedged transaction
Counterparty credit risk:
Particularly when trading OTC with no central counterparty
Destabilization and systemic risk:
Excessive risk taking and use of leverage in derivative markets may contribute to market stress, as in the 2008 financial crisis
Issuer Use of Derivatives
Hedge type:
Description:
Examples:
Cash flow
Absorbs variable cash flow of floating rate asset or liability (forecasted transaction)
* Interest rate swap to a fixedrate for floating-rate debt
* FX forward to hedge forecasted sales
Issuer Use of Derivatives
Hedge type:
Description:
Examples:
Fair value
Offsets fluctuations in fair value of an asset or liability
* Interest rate swap to a floating rate for fixed-rate debt
* Commodity future to hedge inventory
Issuer Use of Derivatives
Hedge type:
Description:
Examples:
Net investment
Designated as offsetting the FX risk of the equity of a foreign operation
* Currency swap
* Currency forward
Investor Use of Derivatives
Investors use derivatives to:
* Replicate a cash market strategy
* Hedge a fund’s value against market movements
* Modify or add exposure
Examples
* Forward commitments
- Using copper forwards to create exposure to the price of copper with little initial outlay
* Contingent claims
- Using a call option to create a long exposure to an asset with very little outlay
- Using a covered call to modify the return to a long position in a stable market