A Project Report on ONLINE TRADING DERIVATIVES Project submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 1 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this Project Report titled “ONLINE TRADING DERIVARIVES” submitted by me to the Department of Business Management, XXXX, is a bonafide work undertaken by me and it is not submitted to any other University or Institution for the award of any degree diploma / certificate or published any time before. Name of the Student Signature of the Student 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to give special acknowledgement to XXX, director, XXXX for his consistent support and motivation. I am grateful to Mr.V.Raghunadh, Associate professor in finance, Vivekananda School of Post Graduate Studies for his technical expertise, advice and excellent guidance. He not only gave my project a scrupulous critical reading, but added many examples and ideas to improve it. I am indebted to my other faculty members who gave time and again reviewed portions of this project and provide many valuable comments. I would like to express my appreciation towards my friends for their encouragement and support throughout this project. XXXX 3 ONLINE TRADING IN DERIVATIVES CONTENTS Chapter –I Introduction Need for the study Objectives of the study Methodology Limitations Chapter –II Stock markets in India Financial Markets Money Markets Capital Markets Stock Markets Derivative Markets Chapter -III Theoretical framework of derivative market. Chapter -IV Practical aspects of derivative market. Chapter –V Summary & Suggestions ANNEXURE Questionnaire Bibliography 4 CHAPTER-I • INTRODUCTION • NEED FOR STUDY • OBJECTIVES • METHODOLOGY • LIMITATIONS 5 Introduction : In our present day economy, finance is defined as the provision of money at the time when it is required. Every enterprise, whether big, medium or small, needs finance to carry on its operations and to achieve its targets in fact; finance is so indispensable today that it is rightly said that it is the lifeblood of an enterprise. The term ‘ownership securities’ also known as ‘capital stock ‘ represents shares. Shares are the most universal forms of raising long-term funds from the market. Every company, except a company limited by guarantee, has a statutory right to issued shares. The capital of a company is divided into a number of equal parts known as shares. According to Farewell .j, a share is, “the interest of a shareholder in the company, measured by a sum of money, for the purpose of liability in the first place, and if interest in the second, but also consisting a series of mutual covenants entered into by all the shareholders interest’. Section 2(46) of the companies act, 1956 defines it as “ a share in the share capital of a company, and includes stock except where a distinction between stock and shares expressed or implied. Share market is of two types. They are cash market and derivative market. Cash markets are the secondary markets where trading in existing securities is done. Listing of new issues for investment and disinvestments by savers/investors takes place. It imparts liquidity or encash ability to stocks and shares. Stock exchange is a market in which securities 6 are bought and sold and it is an essential component of a developed capital markets. The securities contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, defines Stock Exchange as follows: “It is an association, organization or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, established for the purpose of assisting, regulating and controlling of business in buying, selling and dealing in securities”. A stock exchange, thus imparts marketability and liquidity to securities, encourage investments in securities and assists corporate growth. Stock exchanges are organized and regulated markets for various securities issued by corporate sector and other institutions. Derivatives are a product whose value is derived from the value of one or more basic variables, called bases (underlying asset, index, or reference rate,) in a contractual manner. The underlying asset can be equity, fore ex. Commodity or any other asset. For example, wheat farmers may wish to sell their harvest at a future date to eliminate the risk of a change in prices by that date. Such a transaction is an example of a derivative. In the last 20 years derivatives have become notably important in the world of finance. Futures and options are now globally traded on many exchanges. Forward contracts, Swaps and many different types of options are regularly conducted by outside exchanges by financial institutions, fund managers and corporate treasurers in what is termed the over the counter market. Derivatives are also sometimes added to a bond or stock issue. Further, the very nature of volatility in the financial markets, the use of derivative products, it is possible to partially or fully transfer price risks by locking in asset prices. But these instruments of risk management are generally do not influence the fluctuations in the underlying asset prices. However, by locking asset prices, the derivative products minimize the fluctuations in the asset prices on the profitability and cash flow situations on risk to the investor. 7 The derivatives are becoming increasingly important in world of markets as a tool for risk management. Derivative instruments can be used to minimize risk. Derivatives are used to separate the risks and transfer them to parties willing to bear these risks. The kind of hedging that can be obtained by using derivatives is cheaper and more convenient than what could be obtained by using cash instruments. It is so because, when we use derivatives for hedging, actual delivery of the underlying asset is not at all essential for settlement purposes. The profit or loss on derivative deal alone is adjusted in the derivative market. Derivative contracts have several variants. The most common variants are forwards, futures, options and swaps. The following three broad categories of participants – hedgers, speculators, and arbitrageurs trade in the derivatives market. Hedgers face risk associated with the price of an asset. They use futures or options markets to reduce or eliminate this risk. Speculators wish to bet on future movements in the price of an asset. Futures and options contracts can give them an extra leverage; that is, they can increase both the potential gains and potential losses in a speculative venture. Arbitrageurs and in business to take advantage of a discrepancy between prices in two different markets. If, for example, they see the futures price of an asset getting out of line with the cash price, they will take offsetting positions in the two markets to lock in a profit. Derivative products initially emerged as hedging devices against fluctuations in commodity prices, and commodity-linked derivatives remained the sole form for such products for almost three hundred years. Financial derivatives came into spotlight in the post-1970 period due to growing instability in the financial markets. However, since their emergence, these products have become very popular and by 1990s, they accounted for about two-thirds of total transactions in derivative products. In recent years, the market for financial derivatives has grown tremendously in terms of variety of instruments available, their complexity and also turnover. 8 In the class of equity derivatives the world over, futures and options on stock indices have gained more popularity than on individual stocks, especially among institutional investors, who are major users of index-linked derivatives. Even small investors find these useful due to high correlation of the popular indexes with various portfolios and ease of use. The lower costs associated with various portfolios and ease of use. The lower costs associated with index derivatives vis-à-vis derivative products based on individual securities is another reason for their growing use. The first step towards introduction of derivatives trading in India was the promulgation of the Securities Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 1995, which withdrew the prohibition on option in securities. The market for derivatives, however, did not take off, as there was no regulatory framework to govern trading of derivatives. SEBI set up a 24- member committee under the Chairmanship of Dr.L.C.Gupta. on November 18,1996 to develop appropriate regulatory framework for derivatives trading in India. The committee submitted its report on March 17,1998 prescribing necessary pre-conditions for introduction of derivatives trading in India. The committee recommended that derivatives should be declared as ‘securities’ so that regulatory framework applicable to trading of ‘securities’ could also govern trading of securities. SEBI also set up a group in June 1998 under the Chairmanship of Prof.J.R.Varma., to recommend measures for risk containment in derivatives market in India. These instruments can be used to speculate or to manage risk in the equity markets. Derivatives are products whose values are derived from one of more basic variables called bases. These bases can be underlying assets such as foreign currency, stock or commodity, bases or reference rates such as LIBOR or US Treasury Rate etc. For example, an Indian exporter in anticipation of the 9 receipt of dollar-denominated export proceeds may wish to sell dollars at a future date to eliminate the risk of exchange rate volatility by the date. Such transactions are called derivatives, with the spot price of dollar being the underlying asset. Derivatives thus have no value of their own but derive it from the asset that is being dealt with under the derivative contract. For instance, look at an ashtray. It has no value of its own but gains its importance only when one smokes and gain if one wants to collect that ash at one place instead of dirtying the whole room with cigarette ash and its stubs. A smoker can hedge against the risk of stewing the cigarette stubs and ash all around the room.