Derivative (Finance)
Derivative (Finance)
Derivative (Finance)
Basics
Derivatives may broadly be categorized as lock or option products. Lock products (such as swaps, futures,
or forwards) obligate the contractual parties to the terms
over the life of the contract. Option products (such as
interest rate caps) provide the buyer the right, but not the
obligation to enter the contract under the terms specied.
Size of market
USAGE
Option products have immediate value at the outset because they provide specied protection (intrinsic value)
over a given time period (time value). One common form
of option product familiar to many consumers is insurance for homes and automobiles. The insured would pay
more for a policy with greater liability protections (intrinsic value) and one that extends for a year rather than
six months (time value). Because of the immediate option value, the option purchaser typically pays an up front
premium. Just like for lock products, movements in the
underlying asset will cause the options intrinsic value to
3 Usage
change over time while its time value deteriorates steadily
until the contract expires. An important dierence beDerivatives are used for the following:
tween a lock product is that, after the initial exchange,
the option purchaser has no further liability to its counterparty; upon maturity, the purchaser will execute the
Hedge or mitigate risk in the underlying, by entering
option if it has positive value (i.e. if it is in the money)
into a derivative contract whose value moves in the
or expire at no cost (other than to the initial premium)
opposite direction to their underlying position and
(i.e. if the option is out of the money).
[14][15]
cancels part or all of it out
And for one type of derivative at least, Credit Default
Swaps (CDS), for which the inherent risk is considered
high, the higher, nominal value, remains relevant. It was
this type of derivative that investment magnate Warren
Buett referred to in his famous 2002 speech in which he
warned against weapons of nancial mass destruction.
CDS notional value in early 2012 amounted to $25.5 trillion, down from $55 trillion in 2008.[13]
3.3
insures a futures contract, not all derivatives are insured to reduce the uncertainty concerning the rate increase and
against counter-party risk.
stabilize earnings.
From another perspective, the farmer and the miller both
reduce a risk and acquire a risk when they sign the futures contract: the farmer reduces the risk that the price
of wheat will fall below the price specied in the contract and acquires the risk that the price of wheat will rise
above the price specied in the contract (thereby losing
additional income that he could have earned). The miller,
on the other hand, acquires the risk that the price of wheat
will fall below the price specied in the contract (thereby
paying more in the future than he otherwise would have)
and reduces the risk that the price of wheat will rise above
the price specied in the contract. In this sense, one party
is the insurer (risk taker) for one type of risk, and the
counter-party is the insurer (risk taker) for another type
of risk.
Derivatives trading of this kind may serve the nancial interests of certain particular businesses.[18] For example, a
corporation borrows a large sum of money at a specic interest rate.[19] The interest rate on the loan reprices every
six months. The corporation is concerned that the rate of
interest may be much higher in six months. The corporation could buy a forward rate agreement (FRA), which is
a contract to pay a xed rate of interest six months after
purchases on a notional amount of money.[20] If the interest rate after six months is above the contract rate, the
seller will pay the dierence to the corporation, or FRA
buyer. If the rate is lower, the corporation will pay the
dierence to the seller. The purchase of the FRA serves
4 Types
4.1 OTC and exchange-traded
In broad terms, there are two groups of derivative contracts, which are distinguished by the way they are traded
in the market:
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, exotic options and
other exotic derivatives are almost always traded in
TYPES
2. Futures: are contracts to buy or sell an asset on a future date at a price specied today. A futures contract diers from a forward contract in that the futures contract is a standardized contract written by a
clearing house that operates an exchange where the
contract can be bought and sold; the forward contract is a non-standardized contract written by the
parties themselves.
4.2
4.4
4.3
4.5 Forwards
In nance, a forward contract or simply a forward
is a non-standardized contract between two parties to
buy or to sell an asset at a specied future time at a
price agreed upon today, making it a type of derivative
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instrument.[4][50] 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, for
example most of the FX contracts have Spot Date two
business days from today. 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 the forward 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 dierence
between the spot and the forward price is the forward premium or forward discount, generally considered in the
form of a prot, 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 closely related contract is a futures contract; they dier
in certain respects. Forward contracts are very similar
to futures contracts, except they are not exchange-traded,
or dened on standardized assets.[51] Forwards also typically have no interim partial settlements or true-ups in
margin requirements like futuressuch that the parties
do not exchange additional property securing the party
at gain and the entire unrealized gain or loss builds up
while the contract is open. However, being traded over
the counter (OTC), forward contracts specication can
be customized and may include mark-to-market and daily
margin calls. Hence, a forward contract arrangement
might call for the loss party to pledge collateral or additional collateral to better secure the party at gain. In other
words, the terms of the forward contract will determine
the collateral calls based upon certain trigger events relevant to a particular counterparty such as among other
things, credit ratings, value of assets under management
or redemptions over a specic time frame (e.g., quarterly,
annually).
TYPES
A closely related contract is a forward contract. A forward is like a futures in that it species the exchange
of goods for a specied price at a specied future date.
However, a forward is not traded on an exchange and thus
does not have the interim partial payments due to marking to market. Nor is the contract standardized, as on
the exchange. Unlike an option, both parties of a futures
contract must fulll the contract on the delivery date. The
seller delivers the underlying asset to the buyer, or, if it
is a cash-settled futures contract, then cash is transferred
from the futures trader who sustained a loss to the one
who made a prot. To exit the commitment prior to the
4.6 Futures
settlement date, the holder of a futures position can close
out its contract obligations by taking the opposite position
In nance, a 'futures contract' (more colloquially, fu- on another futures contract on the same asset and settletures) is a standardized contract between two parties to ment date. The dierence in futures prices is then a prot
buy or sell a specied asset of standardized quantity and or loss.
quality for a price agreed upon today (the futures price)
with delivery and payment occurring at a specied future date, the delivery date, making it a derivative product (i.e. a nancial product that is derived from an underlying asset). The contracts are negotiated at a futures
4.9
4.7
Swaps
Mortgage-backed securities
4.8
Options
4.9 Swaps
A swap is a derivative in which two counterparties
exchange cash ows of one partys nancial instrument
for those of the other partys nancial instrument. The
benets in question depend on the type of nancial instruments involved. For example, in the case of a swap
involving two bonds, the benets in question can be the
periodic interest (coupon) payments associated with such
bonds. Specically, two counterparties agree to exchange one stream of cash ows against another stream.
These streams are called the swaps legs. The swap
agreement denes the dates when the cash ows are to be
paid and the way they are accrued and calculated. Usually
at the time when the contract is initiated, at least one of
these series of cash ows is determined by an uncertain
variable such as a oating interest rate, foreign exchange
rate, equity price, or commodity price.[4]
The cash ows are calculated over a notional principal
amount. Contrary to a future, a forward or an option,
the notional amount is usually not exchanged between
counterparties. Consequently, swaps can be in cash or
collateral. Swaps can be used to hedge certain risks such
as interest rate risk, or to speculate on changes in the expected direction of underlying prices.
VALUATION
6 Valuation
1. Prices in a structured derivative market not only Two common measures of value are:
replicate the discernment of the market participants about the future but also lead the prices of
Market price, i.e. the price at which traders are willunderlying to the professed future level. On the
ing to buy or sell the contract
expiration of the derivative contract, the prices of
Arbitrage-free price, meaning that no risk-free profderivatives congregate with the prices of the underits can be made by trading in these contracts (see
lying. Therefore, derivatives are essential tools to
rational pricing)
determine both current and future prices.
2. The derivatives market reallocates risk from the people who prefer risk aversion to the people who have 6.2 Determining the market price
an appetite for risk.
For exchange-traded derivatives, market price is usually
3. The intrinsic nature of derivatives market associates transparent (often published in real time by the exchange,
them to the underlying spot market. Due to deriva- based on all the current bids and oers placed on that
tives there is a considerable increase in trade vol- particular contract at any one time). Complications can
umes of the underlying spot market. The dominant arise with OTC or oor-traded contracts though, as tradfactor behind such an escalation is increased partici- ing is handled manually, making it dicult to automatipation by additional players who would not have oth- cally broadcast prices. In particular with OTC contracts,
erwise participated due to absence of any procedure there is no central exchange to collate and disseminate
prices.
to transfer risk.
4. As supervision, reconnaissance of the activities of
various participants becomes tremendously dicult 6.3 Determining the arbitrage-free price
in assorted markets; the establishment of an orgaSee List of nance topics# Derivatives pricing.
nized form of market becomes all the more imperative. Therefore, in the presence of an organized
derivatives market, speculation can be controlled, The arbitrage-free price for a derivatives contract can be
complex, and there are many dierent variables to conresulting in a more meticulous environment.
sider. Arbitrage-free pricing is a central topic of nancial
5. Third parties can use publicly available derivative mathematics. For futures/forwards the arbitrage free
prices as educated predictions of uncertain future price is relatively straightforward, involving the price of
outcomes, for example, the likelihood that a corpo- the underlying together with the cost of carry (income
received less interest costs), although there can be comration will default on its debts.[58]
plexities.
In a nutshell, there is a substantial increase in savings and However, for options and more complex derivatives, pricinvestment in the long run due to augmented activities by ing involves developing a complex pricing model: underderivative market participant.[59]
standing the stochastic process of the price of the under-
7.3
lying asset is often crucial. A key equation for the theoretical valuation of options is the BlackScholes formula,
which is based on the assumption that the cash ows from
a European stock option can be replicated by a continuous
buying and selling strategy using only the stock. A simplied version of this valuation technique is the binomial
options model.
United States Federal Reserve Bank announced the creation of a secured credit
facility of up to US$85 billion, to prevent
the companys collapse by enabling AIG
to meet its obligations to deliver additional collateral to its credit default swap
trading partners.[65]
Criticisms
7.1
7.2
Risks
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by famed investor Warren Buett in Berkshire Hathaway's 2002 annual report. Buett called them 'nancial
weapons of mass destruction.' A potential problem with
derivatives is that they comprise an increasingly larger notional amount of assets which may lead to distortions in
the underlying capital and equities markets themselves.
Investors begin to look at the derivatives markets to make
a decision to buy or sell securities and so what was originally meant to be a market to transfer risk now becomes
a leading indicator.(See Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report for 2002)
rms derivatives usage is inherently dierent. More importantly, the reasonable collateral that secures these different counterparties can be very dierent. The distinction between these rms is not always straight forward
(e.g. hedge funds or even some private equity rms do
not neatly t either category). Finally, even nancial users
must be dierentiated, as 'large' banks may classied
as systemically signicant whose derivatives activities
must be more tightly monitored and restricted than those
of smaller, local and regional banks.
In November 2012, the SEC and regulators from Australia, Brazil, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan,
Ontario, Quebec, Singapore, and Switzerland met to discuss reforming the OTC derivatives market, as had been
agreed by leaders at the 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit
in September 2009.[77] In December 2012, they released
a joint statement to the eect that they recognized that
the market is a global one and rmly support the adoption and enforcement of robust and consistent standards
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DTCC, through its Global Trade Repository (GTR)
service, manages global trade repositories for interest
rates, and commodities, foreign exchange, credit, and
equity derivatives.[79] It makes global trade reports to
the CFTC in the U.S., and plans to do the same for
ESMA in Europe and for regulators in Hong Kong, Japan,
and Singapore.[79] It covers cleared and uncleared OTC
derivatives products, whether or not a trade is electronically processed or bespoke.[79][80][81]
9 Glossary
Country leaders at the 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit
8.1
Reporting
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Finspreads
FXCM
FXdirekt Bank
FXOpen
FxPro
Gain Capital
Hirose Financial
I-Access Investors
IDealing
Structured notes: Non-mortgage-backed debt securities, whose cash ow characteristics depend on one
or more indices and / or have embedded forwards or
options.
IFC Markets
IG Group
InstaForex
Integral Forex
InterTrader
IQ Option
IronFX
Marex Spectron
MF Global
MFX Broker
MRC Markets
Oanda Corporation
OptionsXpress
Over-the-counter (OTC) derivative contracts: Privately negotiated derivative contracts that are transacted o organized futures exchanges.
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Financial derivative
companies
Alpari Group
trading
Anyoption
Pepperstone
AvaTrade
Plus500
Banc De Binary
Saxo Bank
Cantor Fitzgerald
Spreadex
CitiFX Pro
Sucden
TeleTrade
TFI Markets
CMC Markets
Thinkorswim
CommexFX
Varengold Bank
Cu
Wizetrade
Darwinex
Worldspreads
DBFX
XM.com
eToro
X-Trade Brokers
ETX Capital
ZuluTrade
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See also
Credit derivative
Equity derivative
Exotic derivative
Financial engineering
Foreign exchange derivative
Freight derivative
Ination derivative
Interest rate derivative
Property derivatives
Weather derivative
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References
[8] Clear and Present Danger; Centrally cleared derivatives.(clearing houses)". The Economist (Economist
Newspaper Ltd.(subscription required)). April 12, 2012.
Retrieved May 10, 2013.
[25] Knowledge@Wharton (2006). The Role of Derivatives in Corporate Finances: Are Firms Betting the
Ranch?" http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.
cfm?articleid=1346
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[26] Ryan Stever; Christian Upper; Goetz von Peter (December 2007). BIS Quarterly Review (PDF) (Report). Bank
for International Settlements.
[27] BIS survey: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
semi-annual OTC [derivatives market report, for end
of June 2008, showed US$683.7 trillion total notional
amounts outstanding of OTC derivatives with a gross market value of US$20 trillion. See also Prior Period Regular
OTC Derivatives Market Statistics.
[28] Futures and Options Week: According to gures published
in F&O Week October 10, 2005. See also FOW Website.
[29] Financial Markets: A Beginners Module.
[30] An asset-backed security is used as an umbrella term for
a type of security backed by a pool of assetsincluding
collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed securities (Example: The capital market in which assetbacked securities are issued and traded is composed of
three main categories: ABS, MBS and CDOs. (source:
Vink, Dennis. ABS, MBS and CDO compared: An empirical analysis (PDF). August 2007. Munich Personal
RePEc Archive. Retrieved July 13, 2013.)
and sometimes for a particular type of that security
one backed by consumer loans (example: As a rule
of thumb, securitization issues backed by mortgages are
called MBS, and securitization issues backed by debt obligations are called CDO, [and] Securitization issues backed
by consumer-backed productscar loans, consumer loans
and credit cards, among othersare called ABS. source
Vink, Dennis. ABS, MBS and CDO compared: An empirical analysis (PDF). August 2007. Munich Personal
RePEc Archive. Retrieved July 13, 2013.,
see also What are Asset-Backed Securities?". SIFMA.
Retrieved July 13, 2013. Asset-backed securities, called
ABS, are bonds or notes backed by nancial assets. Typically these assets consist of receivables other than mortgage loans, such as credit card receivables, auto loans,
manufactured-housing contracts and home-equity loans.)
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REFERENCES
[32] Koehler, Christian. The Relationship between the Complexity of Financial Derivatives and Systemic Risk.
Working Paper: 17.
[33] Lemke, Lins and Smith, Regulation of Investment Companies (Matthew Bender, 2014 ed.).
[34] Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, All the Devils Are Here,
the Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, Portfolio, Penguin, 2010, p.120
[35] Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes
of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United
States, a.k.a. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,
p.127
[36] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, 2011, p.130
[37] The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, 2011, p.133
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13 Further reading
Shnke M. Bartram; Brown, Gregory W.; Conrad, Jennifer C. (August 2011). The Eects of
Derivatives on Firm Risk and Value. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 46 (4): 967999.
doi:10.1017/s0022109011000275.
Shnke M. Bartram; Kevin Aretz (Winter 2010).
Corporate Hedging and Shareholder Value. Journal of Financial Research 33 (4): 317371.
doi:10.1111/j.1475-6803.2010.01278.x.
Shnke M. Bartram; Gregory W. Brown; Frank
R. Fehle (Spring 2009). International Evidence
on Financial Derivatives Usage. Financial Management 38 (1): 185206. doi:10.1111/j.1755053x.2009.01033.x.
Lins Lemke (20132014). Soft Dollars and Other
Trading Activities. Thomson West.
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