1. Name -Mihir Asher
Roll no- 1
Derivatives trading.
Sub- Essentials of management.
Prof.-Mr.Ranjit Krishnan.
Contents-
1-Introduction
2-Summary
3-Appendix
4-expert opinion
5-bibliography

2. DERIVATIVES
INTRODUCTION
Derivatives, as the name suggests, are financial instruments that derive their
value from an underlying security or asset. The underlying could be equity
shares or an index, a commodity, a currency or the exchange rate, bonds, etc.
There are various derivative products, which derive their value from equity
shares or an index, a commodity, a currency or the exchange rate, bonds, etc.
These derivative products vary according to their structure and terms and
conditions. The most popular derivative products are Forwards, Futures,
Options, Warrants and Swaps. Some of these are short term in nature while
others are long term. For example stock and index options that can be traded
on stock exchanges are short term in nature, while options like warrants and
rights have a longer term.
Futures
A futures contract or a ‘future’ is a legally binding agreement between two
parties that one will buy from the other, a specific quantity of a commodity
or financial instrument at a specified price with delivery set at a specified
time in the future.

3. Types of futures
From the point of view of settlement, there are 2 types of futures contracts -
those that provide for physical delivery (in the case of commodities) and
those, which are settled in cash. The delivery or settlement is a pre-decided
feature of the contract. The month and date during which delivery or
settlement is to occur is specified.
Forward Contracts
A forward contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset on a specified date
for a specified price. One of the parties assumes a long position and agrees
to buy an underlying asset on a certain specified date for a specified price.
The other assumes a short position and agrees to sell the asset on the same
date for the same price. The forward contracts are normally traded outside
the exchange. However a Forward contract is different from futures contract
following are the differences
• Futures are always traded on an exchange, whereas forwards always
trade over-the-counter, or can simply be a signed contract between
two parties.
• Futures are highly standardized, whereas each forward is unique
• The price at which the contract is finally settled is different:

4.  Futures are settled at the settlement price fixed on the last
trading date of the contract (i.e. at the end)
 Forwards are settled by the delivery of the commodity at the
specified contract price.
• The credit risk of futures is much lower than that of forwards:
 Traders are not subject to credit risk because the clearinghouse
always takes the other side of the trade. The day's profit or loss
on a futures position is marked-to-market in the trader's
account. If the mark to market results in a balance that is less
than the margin requirement, then the trader is issued a margin
call.
 The risk of a forward contract is that the supplier will be unable
to deliver the grade and quantity of the commodity or the buyer
may be unable to pay for it on the delivery day.
• In case of physical delivery, the forward contract specifies to whom to
make the delivery. The counterparty on a futures contract is chosen
randomly by the exchange.
• In a forward there are no cash flows until delivery, whereas in futures
there are margin requirements and a daily mark to market of the
traders' accounts.
•
Lastly, because futures contracts are quite frequently employed by
speculators, who bet on the direction in which an asset's price will move,
they are usually closed out prior to maturity and delivery usually never
happens. On the other hand, forward contracts are mostly used by hedgers
that want to eliminate the volatility of an asset's price, and delivery of the
asset or cash settlement will usually take place.

5. Pricing of futures contracts
The theoretical way of pricing any future is to factor in the current price and
holding costs (called ‘the cost of carry’) i.e. Futures Price = Spot Price +
Cost of Carry where:
• The spot price = the price at which the underlying asset is currently trading
in the cash market; and,
• The cost of carry = the sum of all costs incurred if you take a similar
position in the cash market and carry it to the maturity of the futures
contract, less any revenue which may accrue during this period. The costs
typically include interest, in case of financial futures, or interest, insurance
and storage costs in case of commodity futures. The revenue may be
dividends, in case of stock futures
Basis
Basis = Futures price – Spot price
The difference between the price of the underlying asset in the cash market
and the futures price is called the basis. As a futures contract reaches its
expiry date, the basis tends to become less till it becomes zero at the time of
settlement. This is because the futures contract is settled at the closing
market price of the underlying asset.

6. In general, since the futures price is greater than the spot price, the basis is
positive. However, at times, the futures price may be lower than the spot
price. This may happen when expectations are bearish in the near future or
the cost of carry is negative etc.
Future market participants
Operators in the futures markets can be broadly categorized in the following
3 kinds:
1. Hedgers
Hedgers are the players who protect their long / short positions in their
regular business or trading ventures by entering the futures markets. Let’s
say you own 100 shares of ABC Ltd. If you fear that the price of these
shares will fall in the near future, you could protect yourself financially, by
selling ABC Ltd. futures in the market. Here's how you remain insulated
from any fall in price. If the cash market price of ABC Ltd. at present is Rs
130 per share, you should sell futures comprising of the same number of
shares that you hold, i.e. 100 shares, at a futures price that is as close to the
prevailing current price. For simplicity sake, let's say you manage to sell
futures at Rs 130 per share.
Three months later, if the price of ABC Ltd. has fallen to Rs 110 you would
have made a loss of Rs 2,000 (Rs 20 x 100 shares) in your shares. However,
your futures contract will be settled at Rs 110 per share, giving you a gain of

7. Rs 2,000 (Futures sale price of Rs 130 - settlement price of Rs 110 x 100
shares). Thus, your net value of holding is protected.
Similarly, if the price of ABC Ltd. in the cash market rises, the value of your
net holdings will still remain unchanged, since the appreciation in your
shares will be nullified by the loss that you make by settling your futures at a
higher price than your selling price.
2. Speculators
Speculators accept risk in pursuit of profit. This is a highly specialized
business and speculators’ success is dependent on their ability to forecast the
future prices of the underlying assets accurately. As opposed to hedgers,
they take naked positions in the futures market i.e. they go long or short in
various futures contracts available in the market (without owning the
underlying asset). Speculators perform a very important function by acting
as counter parties to hedgers. It can hence be said that derivatives facilitate
the transfer of risk from hedgers to speculators.
3. Arbitrageurs
Arbitrageurs lock in their non-speculative profits by operating in various
markets simultaneously (long in one market and short in another market). In
the process, they remove mis-pricing, if any, in either the cash or derivatives
markets and align the prices through operating in both the markets.
Speculators and arbitrageurs give enormous liquidity to the products traded
on the exchanges. This liquidity, in turn, results in better price discovery,
lower transaction costs and less manipulation of the market.

8. Options
An option contract is an agreement between a buyer and seller, wherein the
seller gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy (in this case it is
called a ‘call option’) or sell (in this case it is called a ‘put option’) an buy a
certain date for a certain price
The option holder may or may not exercise his option to buy or sell the asset
but the option seller has to comply with the wishes of the option holder, if he
decides to exercise his option.
Although it is called an option contract, in reality no physical agreement is
entered into and signed by the buyer and the seller. Transactions are
conducted through the stock exchange and settlement is taken care of by the
clearing house and the stock exchange
Option Premium
The buyer of the option pays a price called option premium to the writer for
the right to buy/sell the underlying asset. This relatively small amount per
option is market-determined and depends upon a number of factors,
including demand and supply for the option.

9. American and European Style Options
Options can be categorized based on the time when they can be exercised.
Based on this categorization, there are 2 kinds of options:
1. American style options
2. European style options
American style options can be exercised by the owner, any time on or
before the expiration date. The stock options traded on the domestic stock
exchanges in India are American style options.
In case of European style options, the owner can exercise his right only on
the expiration date and not before that. Index options traded on the
domestic stock exchanges in India are European style options.
Uses of Options
1 A person can take a long position in underlying and at the same time he
can buy Put Option also this is called protective Put strategy.
2 A person can take long position in underlying plus short position in call
option. This is called writing a covered call because the long stock protects
the investor from possibility of sharp decline in underlying price.
3 A person can take short position in stock with a long position in call option
this protect him when there is sharp increase in the price of underlying.

10. Summary –
 A derivative security can be defined as a security whose value
depends on the values of other underlying variables. Very often, the
variables underlying the derivative securities are the prices of traded
securities.
 Derivatives are basically of 3 types:
– Forwards and Futures
– Options
– Swaps
 A forward contract is the simplest mode of a derivative transaction. It
is an agreement to buy or sell an asset (of a specified quantity) at a
certain future time for a certain price. No cash is exchanged when the
contract is entered into.
 A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell
an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price
 Index futures are all futures contracts where the underlying is the
stock index (Nifty or Sensex) and helps a trader to take a view on the
market as a whole
 Arbitraguer-
 An arbitrageur is basically risk averse. He enters into those contracts
were he can earn risk less profits. When markets are imperfect, buying
in one market and simultaneously selling in other market gives risk
less profit. Arbitrageurs are always in the look out for such
imperfections.
 Margins-

11.  The margining system is based on the JR Verma Committee
recommendations. The actual margining happens on a daily basis
while online position monitoring is done on an intra-day basis.
 The daily settlement process called "mark-to-market" provides for
collection of losses that have already occurred (historic losses) whereas
initial margin seeks to safeguard against potential losses on outstanding
positions. The mark-to-market settlement is done in cash.
Settlements
All trades in the futures market are cash settled on a T+1 basis and all
positions (buy/sell) which are not closed out will be marked-to-market.
 The closing price of the index futures will be the daily settlement
price and the position will be carried to the next day at the settlement

12. Appedix-
Futures- Agreement to buy or sell in future at a certain price.
Options-
An option contract is an agreement between a buyer and seller, wherein the
seller gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy (in this case it is
called a ‘call option’) or sell (in this case it is called a ‘put option’) an buy a
certain date for a certain price.
Hedging-Hedging involves protecting an existing asset position from future
adverse price movements
Arbitrageur-
An arbitrageur is basically risk averse. He enters into those contracts were he
can earn risk less profits.
Expert’s opinion
Mr.Alroy lobo (kotak asset management services)
The current siatuation is pretty stable in the derivatives market, though it
has not yet gained much prominence than the BSE and the NSE. Though the
ncdex is in constant endeavour to bring out new changes in the market in
relation to options and futures.It has opened various courses for training
students in derivatives. It conducts courses in derivatives in bandra kurla
complex. The current average transaction done on daily basis is 65000 crore.

13. Bibliography-
The times of India
The economic times
Webliography-
Moneycontrol.com
Nseindia.com