SHANLAX International Journal of Commerce s han lax # S I N C E 1 9 9 0 OPEN ACCESS Hedging Strategies Used in Selection of “Options” and “Forward” Contracts in Volume: 8 Derivative Market Jayaraman Balakrishnan Issue: 1 Lecturer, Villa College, Male, Maldives Month: January Abstract This Article focuses on the derivatives market, which has crossed several milestones during its Year: 2020 developing phase, but there is still a long way to go, mainly when the International derivatives market has seen a variety of products, with sufficient liquidity, depth, and volume. One remarkable thing in the derivative market was the existence of forwarding contracts. But the major milestone P-ISSN: 2320-4168 in developing the derivatives market in India was the introduction of Options. The objective of introducing Options was to provide a complicated hedging strategy for the corporate in its risk E-ISSN: 2582-0729 management activities. Options trading can be taken to the next level with the help of understanding of Greeks (Delta Δ, Gamma Γ, Vega ν, Theta Θ, Rho ρ) and their Hedging techniques. Each Greek separates a variable that can drive an option’s price movement, giving insight on how the option’s Received: 28.09.2019 premium will vary if that variable changes. Keywords: Options, Forwards, Hedging, Volatility, Option Greeks. JEL Classification: F31; G0; G15; G20; G29. Accepted: 02.11.2019 Introduction Published: 01.01.2020 Derivatives Market Financial markets before liberations, there were only a few financial Citation: products, and the stringent regulatory environment also eluded any possibility Balakrishnan, Jayaraman. of construction of a derivatives market in the country. All corporate was mainly “Hedging Strategies Used relying on the lending institutions for meeting their project financing or any in Selection of ‘Options’ other financing requirements and on commercial banks for meeting working and ‘Forward’ Contracts capital finance requirements. Commercial banks, on their part, were not keen in Derivative Market.” on covering the interest rate exposure of their assets and liabilities. The only Shanlax International derivative product they were aware of is the forward communication. But Journal of Commerce, this scenario changed in the post liberalization period. Conservative business vol. 8, no. 1, 2020, practitioners began to take a different view of various aspects of their operations pp. 1–12. to remain competitive. Financial risks were given adequate attention, and “Treasury function” has assumed a significant role in all major corporate since DOI: then. https://doi.org/10.34293/ The five Greeks are Delta (first derivative of the price of underlying), commerce.v8i1.837 Gamma (2nd derivative of charge), Vega (volatility), Theta (time), Rho (risk- free interest rate). These Greeks can be used as a risk management tool for portfolios containing options. In the following tables are the major influences on a long and a short call option price as well on put option price have been This work is licensed shown. under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License http://www.shanlaxjournals.com 1 SHANLAX s han lax International Journal of Commerce # S I N C E 1 9 9 0 Pelsser and Vorst (1994) discussed the purpose of derivatives to manage commercial risk, while poorer the mainly used Greeks in the context of the binomial companies use derivatives mainly to hedge cash model (Cox and Rubinstein 1983). Garman (1992) movements from transactions. This can be described christened three more unperformed derivatives with very much why they often chose forwards as their the names speed, charm, and color. The duration of hedging instrument because forward records are free option portfolios was defined in Garman (1985), to enter, and there is no fee or reward like options while Gamma duration and volatility immunization to obtain them. We can say the cost of forwarding were defined in Garman (1999). Similarly, Haug contracts is a hidden cost in the spread that the banks (1993) discussed the collection of option’s vegas use when dealing. Considering the spread, the size of of different maturities. Estrella (1995) derived a forward contract can either be very large or small, an algorithm for the resolution of arbitrary price so companies’ forces are forced to enter bigger or derivatives of the BMS option formula. Estrella smaller deals than they are looking for. While in case (1995) examined Taylor series expansions in the of options, it is very easy to measure the cost, and in stock price and found the radius of convergence. the worst scenario, it is to pay up in approach (option Broadie and Glasserman (1996), Curran (1993), premium). and Glasserman and Zhao (1999) all considered This study is conducted to provide some the estimation of security price derivatives using knowledge and application about the Greeks. Each simulation. Bergman (1983) and Bergman, Grundy, Greek separates a variable that can drive an option’s and Wiener (1996) derived expressions for Delta and price movement, giving insight on how the option’s Gamma when volatility is a function of stock price premium will vary if that variable changes. An and time. Grundy and Wiener (1996) also received option’s price can be prejudiced by various factors the theoretical and empirical bounds on Deltas for like underlying price, interest rates, volatility, this case. etc. The underlying price and strike price of the option determines the intrinsic value. The time till The Objective of the Study expiration and instability determine the probability 1. To shed light on Options contracts traded on of a profitable move. The interest rates determine the Exchanges and Forwards contracts traded in cost of money. Dividends can cause an adjustment OTC Market to share price. These factors influence the traders, 2. To establish Options are flexible than Forwards depending on the type of options positions they have contracts in any category or vice-versa established. To become an active options trader, it is 3. To show hedging Greeks can be treated as a risk necessary to understand the factors that influence the management tool price of an option. Research Gap Most companies, different than giant ones, rely Review of Literature on forwards to hedge their trade exposure risk. Hedging with Forwards The difference is the way they look at hedging and Hedging refers to managing risk to the extent that the scope of their hedge. Larger companies use makes it bearable. Forward contracts are customized 2 http://www.shanlaxjournals.com SHANLAX International Journal of Commerce s han lax # S I N C E 1 9 9 0 contracts between two parties to fix the exchange rate than spot price; Put option-exercise price more than for a future transaction. By entering into a forward spot price; At the money: exercise price equal to spot rate deal with a bank, the businessman simply shifts price; Out of the money: call option – exercise price the risk to the bank, which will now have this risk. more than spot price; put option-exercise price less Of course, the bank, in deed, may have to do some than the spot price organization to manage this risk. The products available in the International The interest rate parity theorem is a none- derivatives market to hedge the exposures are arbitrage theorem that states that in the floating Forward Contracts, swaps, and options. But most exchange rate system between two countries, the of the corporate is used to forward for short-term nominal interest rate must be the same. Otherwise, exposures and swaps for long-term exposures. there will be an arbitrage opportunity, which you While forwards and swaps help in eliminating can borrow money from the country with lowers the the uncertainty by hedging the exposure, options interest rate and invests in the country with a higher provide a way of obtaining upside profit potential interest rate and gain where in reality, this is not from any market exposure with the production possible. The forward price needs the interest rate of against downside risk for the payment of an upfront the two countries and the current market rate, and premium. Options are gaining popularity both then it can be calculated from the following: in well-developed economies and in emerging markets. Liberalization measures adopted by various emerging economies had led to increased market exposures of both domestic and foreign entities, F is the value of the forward rate, S is the current which in turn resulted in an increased demand for exchange rate, rd is the domestic interest rate, rf is the innovative instruments to manage the market risk. different interest rate, and T is the time to maturity. Table: Options and Forwards Tools for The pay off from a long forward contract is: Managing Risk: A Comparison where St is the spot rate at the development, Particulars Forwards Options and K is the transfer price. The pay off diagram is Costs 푆푡− illustrated in figure 1. Initial Margin/Deposit No No Variation Margin No No Need for Speculations to assume the risks the No Yes hedgers seek to avoid Foreign favorable Yes No movements Speculation Yes Yes Hedging using Options Arbitrage Yes Yes Options are of two types: One gives the buyer the "Barter" Position Yes No right to buy a particular currency against the other at Transaction cost/ Yes Yes a pre-determined price on or before a predetermined Brokerage fee date; this is a call option. The other gives the buyer Benefits the right to sell a particular currency against the other Diversification benefits No No at a predetermined price on or before a proposed Liquid market No Yes date; this is called a put option. When the right is Yes. Counter applied on or before a predetermined date, then Can hedge currency party may be No it is an American Option, whereas when a right is difficult to find exercisable only a pre-specified date, it is a European Legal obligation Yes No Option.