INTRODUCTION TO FUTURES AND
OPTIONS
In recent years, derivatives have become increasingly important in the field of
finance. While futures and options are now actively traded on many
exchanges, forward contracts are popular on the OTC market. In this chapter
we shall study in detail these three derivative contracts.
3.1 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 to the contract assumes a long
position and agrees to buy the underlying asset on a certain specified future
date for a certain specified pric e. The other party assumes a short position
and agrees to sell the asset on the same date for the same price. Other
contract details like delivery date, price and quantity are negotiated bilaterally
by the parties to the contract. The forward contracts are normally traded
outside the exchanges.
The salient features of forward contracts are:
• They are bilateral contracts and hence exposed to counter-party risk.
• Each contract is custom designed, and hence is unique in terms of
contract size, expiration date and the asset type and quality.
• The contract price is generally not available in public domain.
• On the expiration date, the contract has to be settled by delivery of the
asset.
• If the party wishes to reverse the contract, it has to compulsorily go to
the same counter-party, which often results in high prices being
charged.
However forward contracts in certain markets have become very
standardized, as in the case of foreign exchange, thereby reducing
transaction costs and increasing transactions volume. This process of
standardization reaches its limit in the organized futures market.
Forward contracts are very useful in hedging and speculation. The classic
hedging application would be that of an exporter who expects to receive
payment in dollars three months later. He is exposed to the risk of exchange
rate fluctuations. By using the currency forward market to sell dollars forward,
he can lock on to a rate today and reduce his uncertainty. Similarly an importer
who is required to make a payment in dollars two months hence can reduce his
exposure to exchange rate fluctuations by buying dollars forward.
If a speculator has information or analysis, which forecasts an upturn in a price,
then he can go long on the forward market instead of the cash market. The
speculator would go long on the forward, wait for the price to rise, and then take
a reversing transaction to book profits. Speculators may well be required to
deposit a margin upfront. However, this is generally a relatively small proportion of
the value of the assets underlying the forward contract. The use of forward
markets here supplies leverage to the speculator.
3.2 LIMITATIONS OF FORWARD MARKETS
Forward markets world-wide are afflicted by several problems:
• Lack of centralization of trading,
• Illiquidity, and
• Counterparty risk
In the first two of these, the basic problem is that of too much flexibility and
generality. The forward market is like a real estate market in that any two
consenting adults can form contracts against each other. This often makes them
design terms of the deal which are very convenient in that specific situation, but
makes the contracts non-tradable.
Counterparty risk arises from the possibility of default by any one party to the
transaction. When one of the two sides to the transaction declares bankruptcy, the
other suffers. Even when forward markets trade standardized contracts, and hence
avoid the problem of illiquidity, still the counterparty risk remains a very serious
issue.
3.3 INTRODUCTION TO FUTURES
Futures markets were designed to solve the problems that exist in forward
markets. 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. But unlike forward
contracts, the futures contracts are standardized and exchange traded. To
facilitate liquidity in the futures contracts, the exchange specifies certain standard
27
features of the contract. It is a standardized contract with standard underlying
instrument, a standard quantity and quality of the underlying instrument that can be
delivered, (or which can be used for reference purposes in settlement) and a
standard timing of such settlement. A futures contract may be offset prior to
maturity by entering into an equal and opposite transaction. More than 99% of
futures transactions are offset this way.
The standardized items in a futures contract are:
· Quantity of the underlying
· Quality of the underlying
· The date and the month of delivery
· The units of price quotation and minimum price change
· Location of settlement
Merton Miller, the 1990 Nobel laureate had said that 'financial futures
represent the most significant financial innovation of the last twenty
years." The first exchange that traded financial derivatives was launched
in Chicago in the year 1972. A division of the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange, it was called the International Monetary Market (IMM) and
traded currency futures. The brain behind this was a man called Leo
Melamed, acknowledged as the 'father of financial futures" who was
then the Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Before IMM
opened in 1972, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange sold contracts whose
value was counted in millions. By 1990, the underlying value of all
contracts traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange totaled 50
trillion dollars.
These currency futures paved the way for the successful marketing of a
dizzying array of similar products at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange,
the Chicago Board of Trade, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
By the 1990s, these exchanges were trading futures and options on
everything from Asian and American stock indexes to interest-rate
swaps, and their success transformed Chicago almost overnight into
the risk-transfer capital of the world.
Box 3.5: The first financial futures market
3.4 DISTINCTION BETWEEN FUTURES AND
FORWARDS CONTRACTS
Forward contracts are often confused with futures contracts. The confusion is
primarily because both serve essentially the same economic functions of
allocating risk in the presence of future price uncertainty. However futures are
a significant improvement over the forward contracts as they eliminate
counterparty risk and offer more liquidity. .
3.5 FUTURES TERMINOLOGY
· Spot price: The price at which an asset trades in the spot market.
· Futures price: The price at which the futures contract trades in the
futures market.
· Contract cycle: The period over which a contract trades. The index
futures contracts on the NSE have one- month, two-months and threemonths
expiry cycles which expire on the last Thursday of the month.
Thus a January expiration contract expires on the last Thursday of
January and a February expiration contract ceases trading on the last
Thursday of February. On the Friday following the last Thursday, a new
contract having a three- month expiry is introduced for trading.
· Expiry date: It is the date specified in the futures contract. This is the
last day on which the contract will be traded, at the end of which it will
cease to exist.
· Contract size: The amount of asset that has to be delivered under
one contract. Also called as lot size.
· Basis: In the context of financial futures, basis can be defined as the
futures price minus the spot price. There will be a different basis for
each delivery month for each contract. In a normal market, basis will
be positive. This reflects that futures prices normally exceed spot
prices.
· Cost of carry: The relationship between futures prices and spot prices
can be summarized in terms of what is known as the cost of carry.
This measures the storage cost plus the interest that is paid to finance
the asset less the income earned on the asset.
· Initial margin: The amount that must be deposited in the margin
account at the time a futures contract is first entered into is known as
initial margin.
· Marking-to-market: In the futures market, at the end of each
trading day, the margin account is adjusted to reflect the investor's
gain or loss depending upon the futures closing price. This is called
marking-to-market.
· Maintenance margin: This is somewhat lower than the initial margin.
This is set to ensure that the balance in the margin account never
becomes negative. If the balance in the margin account falls below the
maintenance margin, the investor receives a margin call and is
expected to top up the margin account to the initial margin level
before trading commences on the next day.
3.6 INTRODUCTION TO OPTIONS
In this section, we look at the next derivative product to be traded on the
NSE, namely options. Options are fundamentally different from forward and
futures contracts. An option gives the holder of the option the right to do
something. The holder does not have to exercise this right. In contrast, in a
forward or futures contract, the two parties have committed themselves to
doing something. Whereas it costs nothing (except margin requirements) to
enter into a futures contract, the purchase of an option requires an up-front
payment.
3.7 OPTION TERMINOLOGY
· Index options: These options have the index as the underlying.
Some options are European while others are American. Like index
futures contracts, index options contracts are also cash settled.
· Stock options: Stock options are options on individual stoc ks. Options
currently trade on over 500 stocks in the United States. A contract gives the
holder the right to buy or sell shares at the specified price.
· Buyer of an option: The buyer of an option is the one who by paying the
option premium buys the right but not the obligation to exercise his
option on the seller/writer.
· Writer of an option: The writer of a call/put option is the one who receives
the option premium and is thereby obliged to sell/buy the asset if the
buyer exercises on him.
There are two basic types of options, call options and put options.
· Call option: A call option gives the holder the right but not the obligation to
buy an asset by a certain date for a certain price.
· Put option: A put option gives the holder the right but not the obligation to
sell an asset by a certain date for a certain price.
· Option price/premium: Option price is the price which the option buyer
pays to the option seller. It is also referred to as the option premium.
· Expiration date: The date specified in the options contract is known as
the expiration date, the exercise date, the strike date or the maturity.
· Strike price: The price specified in the options contract is known as the
strike price or the exercise price.
· American options: American options are options that can be exercised at
any time upto the expiration date. Most exchange-traded options are
American.
· European options: European options are options that can be exercised
only on the expiration date itself. European options are easier to analyze
than American options, and properties of an American option are
frequently deduced from those of its European counterpart.
· In-the-money option: An in-the-money (ITM) option is an option that
would lead to a positive cashflow to the holder if it were exercised
immediately. A call option on the index is said to be in-the-money when the
current index stands at a level higher than the strike price (i.e. spot price >
strike price). If the index is much higher than the strike price, the call is said
to be deep ITM. In the case of a put, the put is ITM if the index is below
the strike price.
· At-the-money option: An at-the-money (ATM) option is an option that
would lead to zero cashflow if it were exercised immediately. An option on
the index is at-the-money when the current index equals the strike price
(i.e. spot price = strike price).
· Out-of-the-money option: An out-of-the-money (OTM) option is an
option that would lead to a negative cashflow if it were exercised
immediately. A call option on the index is out-of-the-money when the
current index stands at a level which is less than the strike price (i.e. spot
price < strike price). If the index is much lower than the strike price, the
call is said to be deep OTM. In the case of a put, the put is OTM if the
index is above the strike price.
· Intrinsic value of an option: The option premium can be broken down into
two components - intrinsic value and time value. The intrinsic value of a
call is the amount the option is ITM, if it is ITM. If the call is OTM, its
intrinsic value is zero. Putting it another way, the intrinsic value of a call is
Max[0, (St — K)] which means the intrinsic value of a call is the greater
of 0 or (St — K). Similarly, the intrinsic value of a put is Max[0, K — St],i.e.
the greater of 0 or (K — St). K is the strike price and St is the spot price.
· Time value of an option: The time value of an option is the difference
between its premium and its intrinsic value. Both calls and puts have time
value. An option that is OTM or ATM has only time value. Usually, the
maximum time value exists when the option is ATM. The longer the time to
expiration, the greater is an option's time value, all else equal. At expiration,
an option should have no time value.
Although options have existed for a long time, they were traded OTC, without
much knowledge of valuation. The first trading in options began in Europe and the
US as early as the seventeenth century. It was only in the early 1900s that a group
of firms set up what was known as the put and call Brokers and Dealers Association
with the aim of providing a mechanism for bringing buyers and sellers together. If
someone wanted to buy an option, he or she would contact one of the member
firms. The firm would then attempt to find a seller or writer of the option either
from its own clients or those of other member firms. If no seller could be found,
the firm would undertake to write the option itself in return for a price.
This market however suffered from two deficiencies. First, there was no secondary
market and second, there was no mechanism to guarantee that the writer of the
option would honor the contract. In 1973, Black, Merton and Scholes invented the
famed Black-Scholes formula. In April 1973, CBOE was set up specifically for the
purpose of trading options. The market for options developed so rapidly that by
early '80s, the number of shares underlying the option contract sold each day
exceeded the daily volume of shares traded on the NYSE. Since then, there has
been no looking back.
3.8 FUTURES AND OPTIONS
An interesting question to ask at this stage is - when would one use options
instead of futures? Options are different from futures in several interesting
senses. At a practical level, the option buyer faces an interesting situation. He
pays for the option in full at the time it is purchased. After this, he only has
an upside. There is no possibility of the options position generating any
further losses to him (other than the funds already paid for the option). This
is different from futures, which is free to enter into, but can generate very
large losses. This characteristic makes options attractive to many occasional
market participants, who cannot put in the time to closely monitor their
futures positions.
Buying put options is buying insurance. To buy a put option on Nifty is to buy
insurance which reimburses the full extent to which Nifty drops below the
strike price of the put option. This is attractive to many people, and to mutual
funds creating "guaranteed return products".
Options made their first major mark in financial history during the tulipbulb
mania in seventeenth-century Holland. It was one of the most
spectacular get rich quick binges in history. The first tulip was
brought into Holland by a botany professor from Vienna. Over a
decade, the tulip became the most popular and expensive item in Dutch
gardens. The more popular they became, the more Tulip bulb prices
began rising. That was when options came into the picture. They were
initially used for hedging. By purchasing a call option on tulip bulbs, a
dealer who was committed to a sales contract could be assured of
obtaining a fixed number of bulbs for a set price. Similarly, tulip-bulb
growers could assure themselves of selling their bulbs at a set price by
purchasing put options. Later, however, options were increasingly used
by speculators who found that call options were an effective vehicle for
obtaining maximum possible gains on investment. As long as tulip prices
continued to skyrocket, a call buyer would realize returns far in excess
of those that could be obtained by purchasing tulip bulbs themselves.
The writers of the put options also prospered as bulb prices spiralled
since writers were able to keep the premiums and the options were
never exercised. The tulip-bulb market collapsed in 1636 and a lot of
speculators lost huge sums of money. Hardest hit were put writers who
were unable to meet their commitments to purchase Tulip bulbs.
Box 3.7: Use of options in the seventeenth-century
33
Table 3.2 Distinction between futures and options
Futures Options
Exchange traded, with novation Same as futures.
Exchange defines the product Same as futures.
Price is zero, strike price moves Strike price is fixed, price moves.
Price is zero Price is always positive.
Linear payoff Nonlinear payoff.
Both long and short at risk Only short at risk.
The Nifty index fund industry will find it very useful to make a bundle of a
Nifty index fund and a Nifty put option to create a new kind of a Nifty index
fund, which gives the investor protection against extreme drops in Nifty.
Selling put options is selling insurance, so anyone who feels like earning
revenues by selling insurance can set himself up to do so on the index options
market.
More generally, options offer "nonlinear payoffs" whereas futures only have
"linear payoffs". By combining futures and options, a wide variety of
innovative and useful payoff structures can be created.
OPTIONS
In recent years, derivatives have become increasingly important in the field of
finance. While futures and options are now actively traded on many
exchanges, forward contracts are popular on the OTC market. In this chapter
we shall study in detail these three derivative contracts.
3.1 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 to the contract assumes a long
position and agrees to buy the underlying asset on a certain specified future
date for a certain specified pric e. The other party assumes a short position
and agrees to sell the asset on the same date for the same price. Other
contract details like delivery date, price and quantity are negotiated bilaterally
by the parties to the contract. The forward contracts are normally traded
outside the exchanges.
The salient features of forward contracts are:
• They are bilateral contracts and hence exposed to counter-party risk.
• Each contract is custom designed, and hence is unique in terms of
contract size, expiration date and the asset type and quality.
• The contract price is generally not available in public domain.
• On the expiration date, the contract has to be settled by delivery of the
asset.
• If the party wishes to reverse the contract, it has to compulsorily go to
the same counter-party, which often results in high prices being
charged.
However forward contracts in certain markets have become very
standardized, as in the case of foreign exchange, thereby reducing
transaction costs and increasing transactions volume. This process of
standardization reaches its limit in the organized futures market.
Forward contracts are very useful in hedging and speculation. The classic
hedging application would be that of an exporter who expects to receive
payment in dollars three months later. He is exposed to the risk of exchange
rate fluctuations. By using the currency forward market to sell dollars forward,
he can lock on to a rate today and reduce his uncertainty. Similarly an importer
who is required to make a payment in dollars two months hence can reduce his
exposure to exchange rate fluctuations by buying dollars forward.
If a speculator has information or analysis, which forecasts an upturn in a price,
then he can go long on the forward market instead of the cash market. The
speculator would go long on the forward, wait for the price to rise, and then take
a reversing transaction to book profits. Speculators may well be required to
deposit a margin upfront. However, this is generally a relatively small proportion of
the value of the assets underlying the forward contract. The use of forward
markets here supplies leverage to the speculator.
3.2 LIMITATIONS OF FORWARD MARKETS
Forward markets world-wide are afflicted by several problems:
• Lack of centralization of trading,
• Illiquidity, and
• Counterparty risk
In the first two of these, the basic problem is that of too much flexibility and
generality. The forward market is like a real estate market in that any two
consenting adults can form contracts against each other. This often makes them
design terms of the deal which are very convenient in that specific situation, but
makes the contracts non-tradable.
Counterparty risk arises from the possibility of default by any one party to the
transaction. When one of the two sides to the transaction declares bankruptcy, the
other suffers. Even when forward markets trade standardized contracts, and hence
avoid the problem of illiquidity, still the counterparty risk remains a very serious
issue.
3.3 INTRODUCTION TO FUTURES
Futures markets were designed to solve the problems that exist in forward
markets. 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. But unlike forward
contracts, the futures contracts are standardized and exchange traded. To
facilitate liquidity in the futures contracts, the exchange specifies certain standard
27
features of the contract. It is a standardized contract with standard underlying
instrument, a standard quantity and quality of the underlying instrument that can be
delivered, (or which can be used for reference purposes in settlement) and a
standard timing of such settlement. A futures contract may be offset prior to
maturity by entering into an equal and opposite transaction. More than 99% of
futures transactions are offset this way.
The standardized items in a futures contract are:
· Quantity of the underlying
· Quality of the underlying
· The date and the month of delivery
· The units of price quotation and minimum price change
· Location of settlement
Merton Miller, the 1990 Nobel laureate had said that 'financial futures
represent the most significant financial innovation of the last twenty
years." The first exchange that traded financial derivatives was launched
in Chicago in the year 1972. A division of the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange, it was called the International Monetary Market (IMM) and
traded currency futures. The brain behind this was a man called Leo
Melamed, acknowledged as the 'father of financial futures" who was
then the Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Before IMM
opened in 1972, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange sold contracts whose
value was counted in millions. By 1990, the underlying value of all
contracts traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange totaled 50
trillion dollars.
These currency futures paved the way for the successful marketing of a
dizzying array of similar products at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange,
the Chicago Board of Trade, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
By the 1990s, these exchanges were trading futures and options on
everything from Asian and American stock indexes to interest-rate
swaps, and their success transformed Chicago almost overnight into
the risk-transfer capital of the world.
Box 3.5: The first financial futures market
3.4 DISTINCTION BETWEEN FUTURES AND
FORWARDS CONTRACTS
Forward contracts are often confused with futures contracts. The confusion is
primarily because both serve essentially the same economic functions of
allocating risk in the presence of future price uncertainty. However futures are
a significant improvement over the forward contracts as they eliminate
counterparty risk and offer more liquidity. .
3.5 FUTURES TERMINOLOGY
· Spot price: The price at which an asset trades in the spot market.
· Futures price: The price at which the futures contract trades in the
futures market.
· Contract cycle: The period over which a contract trades. The index
futures contracts on the NSE have one- month, two-months and threemonths
expiry cycles which expire on the last Thursday of the month.
Thus a January expiration contract expires on the last Thursday of
January and a February expiration contract ceases trading on the last
Thursday of February. On the Friday following the last Thursday, a new
contract having a three- month expiry is introduced for trading.
· Expiry date: It is the date specified in the futures contract. This is the
last day on which the contract will be traded, at the end of which it will
cease to exist.
· Contract size: The amount of asset that has to be delivered under
one contract. Also called as lot size.
· Basis: In the context of financial futures, basis can be defined as the
futures price minus the spot price. There will be a different basis for
each delivery month for each contract. In a normal market, basis will
be positive. This reflects that futures prices normally exceed spot
prices.
· Cost of carry: The relationship between futures prices and spot prices
can be summarized in terms of what is known as the cost of carry.
This measures the storage cost plus the interest that is paid to finance
the asset less the income earned on the asset.
· Initial margin: The amount that must be deposited in the margin
account at the time a futures contract is first entered into is known as
initial margin.
· Marking-to-market: In the futures market, at the end of each
trading day, the margin account is adjusted to reflect the investor's
gain or loss depending upon the futures closing price. This is called
marking-to-market.
· Maintenance margin: This is somewhat lower than the initial margin.
This is set to ensure that the balance in the margin account never
becomes negative. If the balance in the margin account falls below the
maintenance margin, the investor receives a margin call and is
expected to top up the margin account to the initial margin level
before trading commences on the next day.
3.6 INTRODUCTION TO OPTIONS
In this section, we look at the next derivative product to be traded on the
NSE, namely options. Options are fundamentally different from forward and
futures contracts. An option gives the holder of the option the right to do
something. The holder does not have to exercise this right. In contrast, in a
forward or futures contract, the two parties have committed themselves to
doing something. Whereas it costs nothing (except margin requirements) to
enter into a futures contract, the purchase of an option requires an up-front
payment.
3.7 OPTION TERMINOLOGY
· Index options: These options have the index as the underlying.
Some options are European while others are American. Like index
futures contracts, index options contracts are also cash settled.
· Stock options: Stock options are options on individual stoc ks. Options
currently trade on over 500 stocks in the United States. A contract gives the
holder the right to buy or sell shares at the specified price.
· Buyer of an option: The buyer of an option is the one who by paying the
option premium buys the right but not the obligation to exercise his
option on the seller/writer.
· Writer of an option: The writer of a call/put option is the one who receives
the option premium and is thereby obliged to sell/buy the asset if the
buyer exercises on him.
There are two basic types of options, call options and put options.
· Call option: A call option gives the holder the right but not the obligation to
buy an asset by a certain date for a certain price.
· Put option: A put option gives the holder the right but not the obligation to
sell an asset by a certain date for a certain price.
· Option price/premium: Option price is the price which the option buyer
pays to the option seller. It is also referred to as the option premium.
· Expiration date: The date specified in the options contract is known as
the expiration date, the exercise date, the strike date or the maturity.
· Strike price: The price specified in the options contract is known as the
strike price or the exercise price.
· American options: American options are options that can be exercised at
any time upto the expiration date. Most exchange-traded options are
American.
· European options: European options are options that can be exercised
only on the expiration date itself. European options are easier to analyze
than American options, and properties of an American option are
frequently deduced from those of its European counterpart.
· In-the-money option: An in-the-money (ITM) option is an option that
would lead to a positive cashflow to the holder if it were exercised
immediately. A call option on the index is said to be in-the-money when the
current index stands at a level higher than the strike price (i.e. spot price >
strike price). If the index is much higher than the strike price, the call is said
to be deep ITM. In the case of a put, the put is ITM if the index is below
the strike price.
· At-the-money option: An at-the-money (ATM) option is an option that
would lead to zero cashflow if it were exercised immediately. An option on
the index is at-the-money when the current index equals the strike price
(i.e. spot price = strike price).
· Out-of-the-money option: An out-of-the-money (OTM) option is an
option that would lead to a negative cashflow if it were exercised
immediately. A call option on the index is out-of-the-money when the
current index stands at a level which is less than the strike price (i.e. spot
price < strike price). If the index is much lower than the strike price, the
call is said to be deep OTM. In the case of a put, the put is OTM if the
index is above the strike price.
· Intrinsic value of an option: The option premium can be broken down into
two components - intrinsic value and time value. The intrinsic value of a
call is the amount the option is ITM, if it is ITM. If the call is OTM, its
intrinsic value is zero. Putting it another way, the intrinsic value of a call is
Max[0, (St — K)] which means the intrinsic value of a call is the greater
of 0 or (St — K). Similarly, the intrinsic value of a put is Max[0, K — St],i.e.
the greater of 0 or (K — St). K is the strike price and St is the spot price.
· Time value of an option: The time value of an option is the difference
between its premium and its intrinsic value. Both calls and puts have time
value. An option that is OTM or ATM has only time value. Usually, the
maximum time value exists when the option is ATM. The longer the time to
expiration, the greater is an option's time value, all else equal. At expiration,
an option should have no time value.
Although options have existed for a long time, they were traded OTC, without
much knowledge of valuation. The first trading in options began in Europe and the
US as early as the seventeenth century. It was only in the early 1900s that a group
of firms set up what was known as the put and call Brokers and Dealers Association
with the aim of providing a mechanism for bringing buyers and sellers together. If
someone wanted to buy an option, he or she would contact one of the member
firms. The firm would then attempt to find a seller or writer of the option either
from its own clients or those of other member firms. If no seller could be found,
the firm would undertake to write the option itself in return for a price.
This market however suffered from two deficiencies. First, there was no secondary
market and second, there was no mechanism to guarantee that the writer of the
option would honor the contract. In 1973, Black, Merton and Scholes invented the
famed Black-Scholes formula. In April 1973, CBOE was set up specifically for the
purpose of trading options. The market for options developed so rapidly that by
early '80s, the number of shares underlying the option contract sold each day
exceeded the daily volume of shares traded on the NYSE. Since then, there has
been no looking back.
3.8 FUTURES AND OPTIONS
An interesting question to ask at this stage is - when would one use options
instead of futures? Options are different from futures in several interesting
senses. At a practical level, the option buyer faces an interesting situation. He
pays for the option in full at the time it is purchased. After this, he only has
an upside. There is no possibility of the options position generating any
further losses to him (other than the funds already paid for the option). This
is different from futures, which is free to enter into, but can generate very
large losses. This characteristic makes options attractive to many occasional
market participants, who cannot put in the time to closely monitor their
futures positions.
Buying put options is buying insurance. To buy a put option on Nifty is to buy
insurance which reimburses the full extent to which Nifty drops below the
strike price of the put option. This is attractive to many people, and to mutual
funds creating "guaranteed return products".
Options made their first major mark in financial history during the tulipbulb
mania in seventeenth-century Holland. It was one of the most
spectacular get rich quick binges in history. The first tulip was
brought into Holland by a botany professor from Vienna. Over a
decade, the tulip became the most popular and expensive item in Dutch
gardens. The more popular they became, the more Tulip bulb prices
began rising. That was when options came into the picture. They were
initially used for hedging. By purchasing a call option on tulip bulbs, a
dealer who was committed to a sales contract could be assured of
obtaining a fixed number of bulbs for a set price. Similarly, tulip-bulb
growers could assure themselves of selling their bulbs at a set price by
purchasing put options. Later, however, options were increasingly used
by speculators who found that call options were an effective vehicle for
obtaining maximum possible gains on investment. As long as tulip prices
continued to skyrocket, a call buyer would realize returns far in excess
of those that could be obtained by purchasing tulip bulbs themselves.
The writers of the put options also prospered as bulb prices spiralled
since writers were able to keep the premiums and the options were
never exercised. The tulip-bulb market collapsed in 1636 and a lot of
speculators lost huge sums of money. Hardest hit were put writers who
were unable to meet their commitments to purchase Tulip bulbs.
Box 3.7: Use of options in the seventeenth-century
33
Table 3.2 Distinction between futures and options
Futures Options
Exchange traded, with novation Same as futures.
Exchange defines the product Same as futures.
Price is zero, strike price moves Strike price is fixed, price moves.
Price is zero Price is always positive.
Linear payoff Nonlinear payoff.
Both long and short at risk Only short at risk.
The Nifty index fund industry will find it very useful to make a bundle of a
Nifty index fund and a Nifty put option to create a new kind of a Nifty index
fund, which gives the investor protection against extreme drops in Nifty.
Selling put options is selling insurance, so anyone who feels like earning
revenues by selling insurance can set himself up to do so on the index options
market.
More generally, options offer "nonlinear payoffs" whereas futures only have
"linear payoffs". By combining futures and options, a wide variety of
innovative and useful payoff structures can be created.