Assume that you are the hedge fund portfolio manager and are starting a new fund
ID: 2758642 • Letter: A
Question
Assume that you are the hedge fund portfolio manager and are starting a new fund. You have received $1 million to invest in a portfolio of derivatives. You should invest at least 20% in each of options, futures, and derivatives. No one position may comprise more than 10% of your portfolio. For each derivative instrument included in the portfolio, assess the risk of that instrument. In other words, identify and examine what could go right and wrong with this instrument. Discuss scenarios where this instrument does very well in the investment environment and scenarios where this instrument will not perform well. Discuss also the potential returns of each instrument: what is the potential return under optimal conditions and potential losses under worst case scenarios. Finally, discuss how you plan to allocate your cash in your portfolio and whether you plan to use strategies based on leverage, shorting, or reverse repurchase agreements.
1. Chose an index of potential derivatives instruments to include in portfolio.
2. Write a short discussion of each instrument and the potential
3. Discuss each instruments and potential losses.
4. Discuss the performance of instruments Please be more specific! Thank you in advance!
Explanation / Answer
A derivative is a contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset or index and called the "underlying".
Types of Contracts
There are different financial instruments such as:
A credit default swap is a financial swap agreement that the seller of the CDS will compensate the buyer in the event of a loan default or other credit event. The buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments (the Premium) to the seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if the loan defaults. In the event of default the buyer of the CDS receives compensation (usually the face value of the loan), and the seller of the CDS takes possession of the defaulted loan. However, anyone can purchase a CDS, even buyers who do not hold the loan instrument and who have no direct insurable interest in the loan. If there are more CDS contracts outstanding than bonds in existence, a protocol exists to hold a credit event auction; the payment received is usually substantially less than the face value of the loan.
Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives are contracts that are traded (and privately negotiated) directly between two parties, without going through an exchange or other intermediary. Products such as swaps, forward rate agreements – and other exotic derivatives – are almost always traded in this way. The OTC derivative market is the largest market for derivatives, and is largely unregulated with respect to disclosure of information between the parties, since the OTC market is made up of banks . Reporting of OTC amounts is difficult because trades can occur in private, without activity being visible on any exchange. Because OTC derivatives are not traded on an exchange, there is no central counter-party. Therefore, they are subject to counterparty risk, like an ordinary contract, since each counter-party relies on the other to perform
Exchange-traded derivatives are those derivatives instruments that are traded via specialized derivatives exchanges or other exchanges. A derivatives exchange is a market where individuals trade standardized contracts that have been defined by the exchange. A derivatives exchange acts as an intermediary to all related transactions, and takes initial margin from both sides of the trade to act as a guarantee.
Options are contracts that give the right but not the obligation to buy or sell an asset. Investors typically will use option contracts when they do not want to risk taking a position in the asset outright, but they want to increase their exposure in case of a large movement in the price of the underlying asset. There are many different option trades that an investor can employ, but the most common are:
A forward contract or simply a forward is a non-standardized contract between two parties to buy or to sell an asset at a specified future time at a price agreed upon today, making it a type of derivative instrument. This is in contrast to a spot contract, which is an agreement to buy or sell an asset on its spot date, which may vary depending on the instrument. The party agreeing to buy the underlying asset in the future assumes a long position, and the party agreeing to sell the asset in the future assumes a short position. The price agreed upon is called the delivery price, which is equal to theforward price at the time the contract is entered into. The price of the underlying instrument, in whatever form, is paid before control of the instrument changes. This is one of the many forms of buy/sell orders where the time and date of trade is not the same as the value date where the securities themselves are exchanged.
The forward price of such a contract is commonly contrasted with the spot price, which is the price at which the asset changes hands on the spot date. The difference between the spot and the forward price is the forward premium or forward discount, generally considered in the form of a profit, or loss, by the purchasing party. Forwards, like other derivative securities, can be used to hedge risk (typically currency or exchange rate risk), as a means of speculation, or to allow a party to take advantage of a quality of the underlying instrument which is time-sensitive.
A'futures contract' is a standardized contract between two parties to buy or sell a specified asset of standardized quantity and quality for a price agreed upon today (the futures price) with delivery and payment occurring at a specified future date, the delivery date, making it a derivative product (i.e. a financial product that is derived from an underlying asset). The contracts are negotiated at a futures exchange, which acts as an intermediary between buyer and seller. The party agreeing to buy the underlying asset in the future, the "buyer" of the contract, is said to be "long", and the party agreeing to sell the asset in the future, the "seller" of the contract, is said to be "short".
While the futures contract specifies a trade taking place in the future, the purpose of the futures exchange is to act as intermediary and mitigate the risk of default by either party in the intervening period. For this reason, the futures exchange requires both parties to put up an initial amount of cash (performance bond), the margin. Margins, sometimes set as a percentage of the value of the futures contract, need to be proportionally maintained at all times during the life of the contract to underpin this mitigation because the price of the contract will vary in keeping with supply and demand and will change daily and thus one party or the other will theoretically be making or losing money. To mitigate risk and the possibility of default by either party, the product is marked to market on a daily basis whereby the difference between the prior agreed-upon price and the actual daily futures price is settled on a daily basis. This is sometimes known as the variation margin where the futures exchange will draw money out of the losing party's margin account and put it into the other party's thus ensuring that the correct daily loss or profit is reflected in the respective account. If the margin account goes below a certain value set by the Exchange, then a margin call is made and the account owner must replenish the margin account. This process is known as "marking to market". Thus on the delivery date, the amount exchanged is not the specified price on the contract but the spot value (i.e., the original value agreed upon, since any gain or loss has already been previously settled by marking to market). Upon marketing the strike price is often reached and creates lots of income for the "caller".
Swaps are derivatives where counterparties to exchange cash flows or other variables associated with different investments. Many times a swap will occur because one party has a comparative advantage in one area such as borrowing funds under variable interest rates, while another party can borrow more freely as the fixed rate. A "plain vanilla" swap is a term used for the simplest variation of a swap. There are many different types of swaps, but three common ones are: