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Futures
A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at
a certain specified time in future for certain specified price. In this, it is similar to a
forward contract. However, there are a number of differences between forwards
and futures. These relate to the contractual features, the way the markets are
organized, profiles of gains and losses, kinds of participants in the markets and
the ways in which they use the two instruments.

Futures contracts in physical commodities such as wheat, cotton, corn, gold,

silver, cattle, etc. have existed for a long time. Futures in financial assets,
currencies, interest bearing instruments like T-bills and bonds and other
innovations like futures contracts in stock indexes are a relatively new
development dating back mostly to early seventies in the United States and
subsequently in other markets around the world.

Major Features Of Futures Contracts

The principal features of the contract are as follows:

Organized Exchanges

Unlike forward contracts which are traded in an over-the-counter market, futures

are traded on organized exchanges with a designated physical location where
trading takes place. This provides a ready, liquid market in which futures can be
bought and sold at any time like in a stock market.

Standardization

In the case of forward currency contracts, the amount of commodity to be

delivered and the maturity date are negotiated between the buyer and seller and
can be tailor-made to buyer's requirements. In a futures contract both these are
standardized by the exchange on which the contract is traded. Thus, for instance,
one futures contract in pound sterling on the International Monetary Market
(IMM), a financial futures exchange in the US, (part of the Chicago Board of
Trade or CBT), calls fore delivery of 62,500 British Pounds and contracts are
always traded in whole numbers i.e. you cannot buy or sell fractional contracts. A
three-month sterling deposit on the London International Financial Futures
Exchange (LIFFE) has March, June, September, December delivery cycle. The
exchange also specifies the minimum size of price movement (called the "tick")
and, in some cases, may also impose a ceiling on the maximum price change
within a day. In the case of commodity futures, the commodity in question is also
standardized for quality in addition to quantity in a single contract.
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Clearing House

The exchange acts as a clearinghouse to all contracts struck on the trading floor.
For instance, a contract is struck between A and B. Upon entering into the
records of the exchange, this is immediately replaced by two contracts, one
between A and the clearing house and another between B and the clearing
house. In other words, the exchange interposes itself in every contract and deal,
where it is a buyer toe very seller and a seller to every buyer. The advantage of
this is that A and B do not have to undertake any exercise to investigate each
other's creditworthiness. It also guarantees the financial integrity of the market.
The exchange enforces delivery for contracts held until maturity and protects
itself from default risk by imposing margin requirements on traders and enforcing
this through a system called "marking to market".

Margins

Like all exchanges, only members are allowed to trade in futures contracts on the
exchange. Others can use the services of the members as brokers to use this
instrument. Thus, an exchange member can trade on his own account as well as
on behalf of a client. A subset of the members is the "clearing members" or
members of the clearinghouse and non-clearing members must clear all their
transactions through a clearing member.

The exchange requires that a margin must be deposited with the clearinghouse
by a member who enters into a futures contract. The amount of the margin is
generally between 2.5% to 10% of the value of the contract but can vary. A
member acting on behalf of a client, in turn, requires a margin from the client.
The margin can be in the form of cash or securities like treasury bills or bank
letters of credit.

Marking To Market

The exchange uses a system called marking to market where, at the end of each
trading session, all outstanding contracts are repriced at the settlement price of
that trading session. This would mean that some participants would make a loss
while others would stand to gain. The exchange adjusts this by debiting the
margin accounts of those members who made a loss and crediting the accounts
of those members who have gained.

This feature of futures trading creates an important difference between forward

contracts and futures. In a forward contract, gains or losses arise only on
maturity. There are no intermediate cash flows. Whereas, in a futures contract,
even though the gains and losses are the same, the time profile of the accruals is
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different. In other words, the total gains or loss over the entire period is broken up
into a daily series of gains and losses, which clearly has a different present value.

Actual Delivery Is Rare

In most forward contracts, the commodity is actually delivered by the seller and is
accepted by the buyer. Forward contracts are entered into for acquiring or
disposing off a commodity in the future for a gain at a price known today. In
contrast to this, in most futures markets, actual delivery takes place in less than
one percent of the contracts traded. Futures are used as a device to hedge
against price risk and as a way of betting against price movements rather than a
means of physical acquisition of the underlying asset. To achieve this, most of the
contracts entered into are nullified by a matching contract in the opposite
direction before maturity of the first.

Types of futures

As is evident from the previous discussion, trading in futures is equivalent to

betting on the price movements in futures prices. If such betting is used to protect
a position - either long or short - in the underlying asset, it is termed as hedging.
On the other hand, if the activity is undertaken only with the objective of
generating profits from absolute or relative price movements, it is termed as
speculation. It must be noted that speculators provide liquidity to the markets by
their willingness to enter open positions.

We shall briefly look at currency, interest rate and stock index futures. There are
others like commodity futures as well which are not covered under this section.

Currency Futures

We shall look at both hedging and speculation in currency futures. Corporations,

banks and others use currency futures for hedging purposes. The underlying
principle is as follows:

Assume that a corporation has an asset e.g. a receivable in a currency A that it

would like to hedge, it should take a futures position such that futures generate a
positive cash whenever the asset declines in value. In this case, since the firm in
long, in the underlying asset, it should go short in futures i.e. it should sell futures
contracts in A. Obviously, the firm cannot gain from an appreciation of A since the
gain on the receivable will be eaten away by the loss on the futures. The hedger
is willing to sacrifice this potential profit to reduce or eliminate the uncertainty.
Conversely, a firm with a liability in currency A e.g. a payable, should go long in
futures.
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In hedging too, the corporation has the option of a direct hedge and a cross
hedge. A British firm with a dollar payable can hedge by selling sterling futures
(same effect as buy dollar futures) on the IMM or LIFFE. This is an example of a
direct hedge. If the dollar appreciates, it will lose on the payable but gain on the
futures, as the dollar price of futures will decline.

An example of a cross hedge is as follows:

A Belgian firm with a dollar payable cannot hedge by selling Belgian franc futures
because they are not traded. However, since the Belgian franc is closely tied to
the Deutschemark in the European Monetary System (EMS). It can sell DM
futures.

An important point to note is that, in a cross hedge, a firm must choose a futures
contract on an underlying currency that is highly positively correlated with the
currency exposure being hedged.

Also, even when a direct hedge is available, it is extremely difficult to achieve a

perfect hedge. This is due to two reasons. One is that futures contracts are for
standardized amounts as this is designed by the exchange. Evidently, this will
only rarely match the exposure involved. The second reason involves the
concept of basis risk. The difference between the spot price at initiation of the
contract and the futures price agreed upon is called the basis. Over the term of
the contract, the spot price changes, as does the futures price. But the change is
not always perfectly correlated - in other words, the basis is not constant. This
gives rise to the basis risk. Basis risk is dealt with through the hedge ratio and a
strategy called delta hedging.

A speculator trades in futures to profit from price movements. They hold views
about the future price movements - if these differ from those of the general
market, they will trade to profit from this discrepancy. The flip side is that they are
willing to take the risk of a loss if the prices move against their views of opinions.

Speculation using futures can be in the either open position trading or spread
trading. In the former, the speculator is betting on movements in the price of a
particular futures contract. In the latter, he is betting on the price differential
between two futures contracts.
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An example of open position trading is as follows:

$/DM Prices
Spot 0.5785
March Futures 0.5895
June Futures 0.5915
September Futures 0.6015

These prices evidently indicate that the market expects the DM to appreciate
over the next 6-7 months. If there is a speculator who holds the opposite view -
i.e. he believes that the DM is actually going to depreciate. There is another
speculator who believes that the DM will appreciate but not to the extent that the
market estimates - in other words, the appreciation of the DM will fall short of
market expectations. Both these speculators sell a September futures contract
(standard size - DM 125,000) at $ 0.6015.

On September 10, the following rates prevail:

Spot $/DM - 0.5940, September Futures - 0.5950

Both speculators reverse their deal with the purchase of a September futures
contract. The profit they make is as follows:

$(0.6015-0.5950) i.e. $0.0065 per DM or $(125000 x 0.0065) i.e. $ 812.5 per

contract.

A point to be noted in the above example is that the first speculator made a profit
inspite the fact that his forecast was faulty. What mattered therefore, was the
movement in September futures price relative to the price that prevailed on the
day the contract was initiated.

In contrast to the open position trading, spread trading is considered a more

conservative form of speculation. Spread trading involves the purchase of one
futures contract and the sale of another. An intra-commodity spread involves
difference in prices of two futures contract with the same underlying commodity
and different maturity dates. These are also termed as time spreads. An inter-
commodity spread involves the difference in prices of two futures contracts with
different but related commodities. These are usually with the same maturity
dates.

Interest Rate Futures

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Interest rate futures is one of the most successful financial innovations in recent
years. The underlying asset is a debt instrument such as a treasury bill, a bond or
time deposit in a bank. The International Monetary Market (IMM) - a part of the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has futures contracts on US Government treasury
bonds, three-month Euro-dollar time deposits and medium term US treasury
notes among others. The LIFFE has contracts on euro-dollar deposits, sterling
time deposits and UK Government bonds. The Chicago Board of Trade offers
contracts on long term US treasury bonds.

Interest rate futures are used by corporations, banks and financial institutions to
hedge interest rate risk. A corporation planning to issue commercial paper can
use T-bill futures to protect itself against an increase in interest rate. A treasurer
who is expecting some surplus cash in the near future to be invested in some
short term investments may use the same as insurance against a fall in interest
rates. Speculators bet on interest rate movements or changes in the term
structure in the hope of generating profits.

A complete analysis of interest rate futures would be a complex exercise as it

involves thorough understanding and familiarity with concepts such as discount
yield, yield-to-maturity and elementary mathematics of bond valuation and
pricing.

Stock Index Futures

A stock index futures contract is an obligation to deliver on the settlement date an

amount of cash equivalent to the value of 500 times the difference between the
stock index value at the close of the last trading day of the contract and the price
at which the futures contract was originally struck. For example, if the S&P 500
Stock Index is at 500 and each point in the index equals $ 500, a contract struck
at this level is worth $ 250,000 (500 * $500). If, at the expiration of the contract,
the S&P 500 Stock Index is at 520, a cash settlement of $ 10,000 is to be made
[ (520 - 510) * $500].

It must be noted that no physical delivery of stock is made. Therefore, in order to

ensure that sufficient funds are available for settlement, both parties have to
maintain the requisite deposit and meet the variation margin calls as and when
required.

Options
A options agreement is a contract in which the writer of the option grants the
buyer of the option the right purchase from or sell to the writer a designated
instrument for a specified price within a specified period of time.

The writer grants this right to the buyer for a certain sum of money called the
option premium. An option that grants the buyer the right to buy some instrument
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is called a call option. An options that grants the buyer the right to sell an
instrument is called a put option. The price at which the buyer an exercise his
option is called the exercise price, strike price or the striking price.

Options are available on a large variety of underlying assets like common stock,
currencies, debt instruments and commodities. Also traded are options on stock
indices and futures contracts – where the underlying is a futures contract and
futures style options.

Options have proved to be a versatile and flexible tool for risk management by
themselves as well as in combination with other instruments. Options also
provide a way for individual investors with limited capital to speculate on the
movements of stock prices, exchange rates, commodity prices etc. The biggest
advantage in this context is the limited loss feature of options.

Types Of Options

As mentioned earlier, the underlying asset for options could be a spot commodity
or a futures contract on a commodity. Another variety is the futures-style option.

An option on spot foreign exchange gives the option buyer the right to buy or sell
a currency at a stated price (in terms of another currency). If the option is
exercised, the option seller must deliver or take delivery of a currency.

An option on currency futures gives the option buyer the right to establish a long
or short position in a currency futures contract at a specified price. If the option is
exercised, the seller must take the opposite position in the relevant futures
contract. For example, suppose you had an option to buy a December DM
contract on the IMM at a price of $ 0.58 / DM. You exercise the option when
December futures are trading at $ 0.5895. You can close out your position at this
price and take a profit of $ 0.0095 per DM or, meet futures margin requirements
and carry a long position with $ 0.0095 per DM being credited to your margin
account. The option seller automatically gets a short position in December
futures.

Futures style options are a little bit more complicated. Like futures contracts, they
represent a bet on a price. The price being betted on, is the price of an option on
spot foreign exchange. Simply put, the buyer of the option has to pay a price to
the seller of the option i.e. the premium or the price of the option. In a futures
style option, you are betting on the changes in this price, which, in turn depends
on several factors including the spot exchange rate of the currency involved. For
instance, a trader feels that the premium on a particular option is going to
increase. He buys a futures-style call option. The seller of this call option is
betting that the premium will go down. Unlike the option on the spot, the buyer
does not pay the premium to the seller. Instead, they both post margins related to
the value of the call on spot.
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Options Terminology

To reiterate, the two parties to an options contract are the option buyer and the
option seller, also called the option writer. For exchange traded options, as in the
case of futures, once the agreement is reached between two traders, the
exchange (the clearing house) interposes itself between the two parties
becoming buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer. The clearing house
guarantees performance on the part of every seller.

Call Option

A call option gives the option buyer the right to purchase currency Y against
currency X, at a stated price X/Y, on or before a stated date. For exchange traded
options, one contract represents a standard amount of the currency Y. The writer
of a call option must deliver the currency if the option buyer chooses to exercise
his option.

Put Option

A put option gives the option buyer the right to sell a currency Y against currency
X at a specified price on or before a specified date. The writer of a put option
must take delivery if the option is exercised.

Strike Price (also called exercise price)

The price specified in the option contract at which the option buyer can purchase
the currency (call) or sell the currency (put) Y against X.

Maturity Date

The date on which the option contract expires is the maturity date. Exchange
traded options have standardized maturity dates.

American Option

An option, call or put, that can be exercised by the buyer on any business day
from initiation to maturity.

European Option

A European option is an option that can be exercised only on maturity date.

Premium (Option price, Option value)

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The fee that the option buyer must pay the option writer at the time the contract is
initiated. If the buyer does not exercise the option, he stands to lose this amount.

Intrinsic value of the option

The intrinsic value of an option is the gain to the holder on immediate exercise of
the option. In other words, for a call option, it is defined as Max [(S-X), 0], where
s is the current spot rate and X is the strike rate. If S is greater than X, the
intrinsic value is positive and is S is less than X, the intrinsic value will be zero.
For a put option, the intrinsic value is Max [(X-S), 0]. In the case of European
options, the concept of intrinsic value is notional as these options are exercised
only on maturity.

Time value of the option

The value of an American option, prior to expiration, must be at least equal to its
intrinsic value. Typically, it will be greater than the intrinsic value. This is because
there is some possibility that the spot price will move further in favor of the option
holder. The difference between the value of an option at any time "t" and its
intrinsic value is called the time value of the option.

At-the-Money, In-the-Money and Out-of-the-Money Options

A call option is said to be at-the-money if S=X i.e. the spot price is equal to the
exercise price. It is in-the-money is S>X and out-of-the-money is S<X.
Conversely, a put option is at-the-money is S=X, in-the-money if S<X and out-of-
the-money if S>X.

Option Pricing

Black & Scholes, in their celebrated analysis on option pricing, reached the
conclusion that the estimated price of a call could be calculated with the following
equation:

Pc = [Ps][N(d1) – [Pe][antilog (-Rft)[N(d2)]

Where:

Pc - market value of the call option

Ps - price of the stock
Pe - strike price of the option
Rf - annualized interest rate
t - time to expiration in years
antilog – to the base e
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N(d1) and N(d2) are the values of the cumulative normal distribution, defined as
follows:

d1 = Ln (Ps / Pe) + (Rf + 0.5 s 2)t

sÖt

d2 = d1 - (s Ö t)

where:

Ln (Ps / Pe) is the natural logarithm of (Ps / Pe)

s 2 is the is the variance of continuously compounded rate of return on stock per
time period.

Admittedly, the definitions of d1 and d2 are difficult to grasp for the reader as they
involve complex mathematical equations. However, the basic properties of the
Black-Scholes model are easy to understand. What the model establishes is that
the estimated price of options vary directly with an option’s term to maturity and
with the difference between the stock’s market price and the option’s strike price.
Further, the definitions of d1 and d2 indicate that option prices increase with the
variance of the rate of return on the stock price, reflecting that the greater the
volatility, higher the chance that the option will become more valuable.

Relationship Between The Option Premium And Stock Price

It is obvious that the option premium fluctuates as the stock price moves above
or below the strike price. Generally, option premiums rarely move point for point
with the price of the underlying stock. This typically happens only at parity, in
other words, when the exercise price plus the premium equals the market price of
the stock.

Prior to reaching parity, premiums tend to increase less than point per point with
the stock price. One reason for this are that point per point increase in premium
would result in sharply reduced leverage for the option buyers – reduced
leverage means reduced demand for the option. Also, a higher option premium
entails increased capital outlay and increased risk, once again reducing demand
for the option.

Declining stock prices also do not result in a point per point decrease in option
premium. This is because, even a steep decline in the stock price in a span of a
few days has only a slight effect on the option’s total value – its time value. This
term to maturity effect tends to exist as the option is a wasting asset.
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Option Strategies

This section deals with some of the most basic strategies that can be devised
using options. The idea is to familiarize the reader with the flexibility of options as
a risk management tool. In order to keep matters simple, we make the following
assumptions:

• We shall ignore brokerage, commissions, margins etc.

• We shall assume that the option is exercised only on maturity and not
prematurely exercise - in other words, we assume that we are only dealing
with European options
• All exchange rates, strike prices and premia will be in terms of dollars per
unit of a currency and the option will be assumed to be on one unit of the
currency.

Call Options

A call option buyer's profit can be defined as follows:

At all points where S<X, the payoff will be -c

At all points where S>X, the payoff will be S-X- c, where

S = Spot price
X = Strike price or exercise price
c = call option premium

Conversely, the option writer's profit will be as follows:

At all points where S<X, the payoff will be c

At all points where S>X, the payoff will be -(S-X- c)

To illustrate this, let us look at an example and construct the payoff profile.

Consider a trader who buys a call option on the Swiss Franc with a strike price of
$ 0.66 and pays a premium of 1.95 cents ($0.0195). The current spot rate is
0.6592. His gain or loss at time T when the option expires depends upon the
value of the spot rate at that time.

For all values of S below 0.66, the option buyer lets the option lapse since the
Swiss francs can be bough in the spot market at a lower price. His loss then will
be limited to the premium he has paid. For spot values greater than the strike
price, he will exercise the option.

Let us look at the payoff profile of the call option buyer.

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Spot Rate Gain (S-X-c) Loss (-c)

0.6000 - -0.0195
0.6500 - -0.0195
0.6600 - -0.0195
0.6700 - -0.0195
0.6795 - -
0.6800 0.0005 -
0.6900 0.0105 -
0.7000 0.0205 -

Similarly, we can construct the payoff profile for the call writer. This will be as
follows:

Spot Rate Gain (c) Loss (S-X-c)

0.6000 0.0195 -
0.6500 0.0195 -
0.6600 0.0195 -
0.6700 0.0195 -
0.6795 - -
0.6800 - -0.0005
0.6900 - -0.0105
0.7000 - -0.0205

Put Option

A put option buyer's profit can be defined as follows:

At all points where S<X, the payoff will be X-S-p

At all points where S>X, the payoff will be -p, where

S = Spot price
X = Strike price or exercise price
p = put option premium

Conversely, the put option writer's profit will be as follows:

At all points where S<X, the payoff will be -(X-S- p)

At all points where S>X, the payoff will be p
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For example, let us take the case of a trader who buys a June put option on
pound sterling at a strike price of $1.7450, for a premium of $0.05 per sterling.
The spot rate at that time is $ 1.7350.

For all values of S greater than $1.7450, the option will not be exercised as the
sterling has a higher price in the spot market. For values between $1.6950 and $
1.7450, the option will be exercised, though there will still be a loss. Here the
option buyer is trying to minimize the loss. For values of spot rate below $
1.6950, the option will be exercised and will lead to a net profit.

At expiry, the put option buyer's payoff profile can be depicted as follows:

Spot Rate Gain (X-S-p) Loss (-p)

1.6600 0.0350 -
1.6800 0.0150 -
1.6900 0.0050 -
1.6950 - -
1.7400 - -0.0450
1.7500 - -0.0500
1.7800 - -0.0500
1.8000 - -0.0500

Similarly, we can construct a payoff profile for the put option writer. His gains and
losses will look as follows:

Spot Rate Gain (p) Loss -(X-S-p)

1.6600 - -0.0350
1.6800 - -0.0150
1.6900 - -0.0050
1.6950 - -
1.7400 0.0450 -
1.7500 0.0500 -
1.7800 0.0500 -
1.8000 0.0500 -

Spread Strategies

Spread strategies with options involve simultaneous sale and purchase of two
different option contracts. The objective in these strategies is to realize a profit if
the underlying price moves in a fashion that is expected and to limit the
magnitude of loss in case it moves in an unexpected fashion. Evidently, these are
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speculative in nature. However, these strategies are such that they provide
limited gains while also ensuring limited losses.

Spread strategies involving options with same maturity but different strike prices
are called vertical spreads or price spreads. The types of vertical spread
strategies are bullish call spreads, bearish call spreads, bullish put spreads and
bearish put spreads. The expectation when going in for these strategies is that
the underlying rate is likely to either appreciate or depreciate significantly.

Horizontal or time spread strategies involve simultaneous buying and selling of

two options which are similar in all respects except in maturity. The basic idea
behind this is that the time value of the short maturity option will decline faster
than that of the long maturity option. The expectation when going for this strategy
is that the underlying price will not change drastically but the difference in premia
will over time.

Vertical Spread Strategies

A bullish call consists of selling the call with the higher strike price and buying the
call with the lower strike price. The expectation is the underlying currency is likely
to appreciate. The investor however, would like to limit his losses.

Since a lower priced call is being bought i.e. higher premium is paid and a higher
priced call is being sold i.e. lower premium is received, the initial net investment
would be the difference in the two premia. The maximum profit potential will be
the difference in the strike prices minus the initial investment. The maximum loss
is the initial investment. This strategy thus yields a limited profit if the currency
appreciates and a limited loss if the currency depreciates.

On the other hand, if the investor expects the currency to depreciate, he can go
in for the bearish call spread. This is the reverse of the bullish spread i.e. the call
with the higher strike price is bought and that with the lower strike price is sold.
The maximum gain will be the difference in the premia. The maximum loss will be
the difference is premia minus the difference in the strike prices.

A bullish put spread consists of selling a put option with higher strike price and
buying a put option with a lower strike price. In this case, if there is a significant
appreciation in the underlying rate, neither put will be exercised and the net gain
will be the difference in premia. Maximum loss will be the difference in strike
prices minus the difference in premia. A bearish put spread is the opposite of a
bullish put spread.

An extension of the idea of vertical spreads is the butterfly spread. A butterfly

spread involves three options with different strike prices but same maturity. A
butterfly spread is bought by purchasing two calls with the middle strike price and
selling one call each with the strike price on either side. The investor's
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expectation is that there will be a significant movement in the underlying rate - he

is, however, unsure of the direction of this movement. This strategy yields a
limited profit if there is a significant movement in the underlying rate -
appreciation or depreciation. But if the movements are moderate or not very
significant, it tends to result in a loss.

Selling a butterfly spread involves selling two intermediate priced calls and
buying one on either side. As opposed to the buyer of a butterfly spread, the
seller here is betting on moderate or non-significant movements. He does not
expect drastic movements either way. Therefore, this strategy yields a small profit
if there are moderate changes in the exchange rate and a limited loss if there are
large movements on either side.

Horizontal Or Time Spreads

As mentioned earlier, horizontal or time spread strategies involve simultaneous

buying and selling of two options which are similar in all respects except in
maturity. The basic idea behind this is that the time value of the short maturity
option will decline faster than that of the long maturity option.

Straddles And Strangles

A Straddle strategy consists of buying a call and a put both with identical strikes
and maturity. If there is a drastic depreciation, the investor gains on the put i.e. by
exercising the option to sell. If there is a drastic appreciation, the investor
exercises the call and purchases at the lower price. However, if there is a
moderate movement either way, the investor will suffer a loss.

A strangle is similar to a straddle. It consists of buying a call with strike above the
current spot rate and a put with a strike price below the current spot. Like the
straddle, it yields a profit for drastic movements and a loss for moderate
movements.

Currency options thus, provide the corporate treasurer a tool for hedging foreign
exchange risks arising out of the firm's operations. Unlike the forward contracts,
options allow the hedger to gain from favorable exchange rate movements while
being protected against unfavorable movements
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Swaps
Financial swaps are a funding technique, which permit a borrower to access one
market and then exchange the liability for another type of liability. The global
financial markets present borrowers and investors with a wide variety of financing
and investment vehicles in terms of currency and type of coupon - fixed or
floating. Floating rates are tied to an index which could be the London Interbank
borrowing rate (LIBOR), US treasury bill rate etc. This helps investors exchange
one type of asset for another for a preferred stream of cash flows.

It must be noted that swaps by themselves are not a funding instrument; they are
a device to obtain the desired form of financing indirectly. The borrower might
otherwise have found this too expensive or even inaccessible.

A common explanation for the popularity of swaps concerns the concept of

comparative advantage. The basic principle is that some companies have a
comparative advantage when borrowing in fixed rate markets while other
companies have a comparative advantage in floating rate markets. This may lead
to some companies borrowing in fixed markets when the need is of a floating rate
loan and vice versa. Swaps are used to transform the fixed rate loan into a
floating rate loan.

Types Of Swaps

All swaps involve exchange of a series of periodic payments between two

parties. A swap transaction usually involves an intermediary who is a large
international financial institution. The two payment streams are estimated to have
identical present values at the outset when discounted at the respective cost of
funds in the relevant markets.

The two most widely prevalent types of swaps are interest rate swaps and
currency swaps. A third is a combination of the two to result in cross-currency
interest rate swaps. Of course, a number of variations are possible under each of
these major types of swaps.

Interest Rate Swaps

An interest rate swap as the name suggests involves an exchange of different

payment streams which fixed and floating in nature. Such an exchange is
referred to as a exchange of borrowings or a coupon swap. In this, one party, B,
agrees to pay to the other party, A, cash flows equal to interest at a
predetermined fixed rate on a notional principal for a number of years. At the
same time, party A agrees to pay party B cash flows equal to interest at a floating
rate on the same notional principal for the same period of time. The currencies of
the two sets of interest cash flows are the same. The life of the swap can range
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from two years to over 15 years. This type of a standard fixed to floating rate
swap is also called a plain vanilla swap in the market jargon.

London Inter-bank Offer Rate (LIBOR) is often the floating interest rate in many
of the interest rate swaps. LIBOR is the interest rate offered by banks on deposits
from other banks in the Eurocurrency markets. LIBOR is determined by trading
between banks and changes continuously as the economic conditions change.
Just as the Prime Lending Rate (PLR) is used as the benchmark or the peg for
many Indian floating rate instruments, LIBOR is the most frequently used
reference rate in international markets.

Usually, two non-financial companies do not get in touch with each other to
directly arrange a swap. They each deal with a financial intermediary such as a
bank who then structures the plain vanilla swap in such a way so as to earn them
a margin or a spread. In international markets, they typically earn about 3 basis
points (0.03%) on a pair of offsetting transactions.

At any given point of time, the swap spreads are determined by supply and
demand. If more participants in the swap markets want to receive fixed rather
than floating, swap spreads tend to fall. If the reverse is true, the swap spreads
tend to rise.

In real life, it is difficult to envisage a situation where two companies contact a

financial institution at exactly the same time with the proposal to take opposite
positions in the same swap. Most large financial institutions are therefore
prepared tow are house interest rate swaps. This involves entering into a swap
with a counterparty, then hedging the interest rate risk until an opposite
counterparty us found. Interest rate future contracts are resorted to as a hedging
tool in such cases.

Currency Swaps

Currency swaps involves exchanging principal and fixed rate interest payments
on a loan in one currency for principal and fixed rate interest payments on an
approximately equivalent loan in another currency.

Suppose that a company A and company B are offered the fixed five-year rates of
interest in U.S. dollars and sterling. Also suppose that sterling rates are generally
higher than the dollar rates. Also, company A enjoys a better creditworthiness
than company B as it is offered better rates on both dollar and sterling. What is
important to the trader who structures the swap deal is that difference in the rates
offered to the companies on both currencies is not the same. Therefore, though
company A has a better deal in both the currency markets, company B does
enjoy a comparatively lower disadvantage in one of the markets. This creates an
ideal situation for a currency swap. The deal could be structured such that
company B borrows in the market in which it has a lower disadvantage and
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company A in which it has a higher advantage. They swap to achieve the desired
currency to the benefit of all concerned.

A point to note is that the principal must be specified at the outset for each of the
currencies. The principal amounts are usually exchanged at the beginning and
the end of the life of the swap. They are chosen such that they are equal at the
exchange rate at the beginning of the life of the swap.

Like interest rate swaps, currency swaps are frequently warehoused by financial
institutions that carefully monitor their exposure in various currencies so that they
can hedge their currency risk.

Other Swaps

A swap in its most general form is a contract that involves the exchange of cash
flows according to a predetermined formula. There is no limit to the number of
innovations that can be made given this basic structure of the product.

One innovation is that principal in a swap agreement can be varied throughout

the term of the swap to meet the needs of the two parties. In an amortizing swap,
the principal reduces in a predetermined way. This could be designed to
correspond to the amortization schedule on a particular loan. Another innovation
could be the deferred or forward swaps where the two parties do not start
exchanging interest payments until some future date.

Another innovation is the combination of the interest and currency swaps where
the two parties exchange a fixed rate currency A payment for a floating rate
currency B payment.

Swaps are also extendable, where one party has the option to extend the life of
the swap or puttable, where one party has the option to terminate the swap
before its maturity. Options on swaps or Swaptions, are also gaining in popularity.

A constant maturity swap (CMS) is an agreement to exchange a LIBOR rate for a

swap rate. Foe example, an agreement to exchange 6-month LIBOR for the 10-
year swap rate every six months for the next five years is a CMS. Similarly, a
constant maturity treasury swap (CMT) involves swapping a LIBOR rate for a
treasury rate. An equity swap is an agreement to exchange the dividends and
capital gains realized on an equity index for either a fixed or floating rate of
interest.

These are only a few of the innovations in swaps that exist in the financial markets. The
above have been mentioned to underscore the fact that swaps and other derivatives that
have been dealt with in this module are all born out of necessity or needs of the many
participants in the international financial market.