Optimal Hedging Strategy (optimal + hedging_strategy)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Developing Hedging Strategies for Québec Hog Producers under Revenue Insurance

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2004
Jean-Philippe Gervais
The paper investigates the optimal hedging strategies of Québec hog producers when they participate in a publicly funded revenue insurance program known as ASRA (Régime d'assurance-stabilisation des revenus agricoles). A forecast model of local cash and futures prices is built and Monte Carlo methods are used to derive the optimal futures and option positions of Québec hog producers. The positive correlation between forecasts of futures and cash spot prices induces positive sales of futures and put options to hedge price risk. ASRA provides put options to hog producers at actuarially advantageous terms. Producers can increase the expected utility of profits by selling back a portion of these put options using financial markets. Options are attractive to manage price risk given the nonlinearity in the profit function induced by the revenue insurance scheme. Speculative incentives to use futures and options are also discussed in the context of ASRA. Les auteurs ont examiné les meilleures stratégies de régulation pour les producteurs de porc québécois adhérant au programme d'assurance-revenu financeé par l'administration publique (ASRA). Ils ont bâti un modéle de prévision pour les prix au comptant et les prix à terme locaux puis appliquéé les méthodes de Monte Carlo pour voir comment les éleveurs de porcs québécois peuvent obtenir les prix d'option etles prix â terme optimaux. La corrélation positive entre les prix é terme et les prix au comptant favorise les ventes â terme et les options de vente pour une meilleure régulation des risques associés aux prix. L'ASRA permet aux producteurs de prendre des options â des termes avantageux sur le plan actuariel. Les éleveurs peuvent accroître la valeur prévue de leurs bénéfices en cédant une partie de ces options sur les marchés financiers. Les options sont intéressantes pour gérer les risques liés aux prix â cause de la non-linéarité que le programme d'assurance-revenu induit dans la fonction «bénéfices ». Les auteurs abordent aussi le probléme de la spéculation sur le marchéâ terme et le marché des options dans le contexte de l'ASRA. [source]


Hedging under counterparty credit uncertainty

THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 3 2008
Olivier Mahul
This study investigates optimal production and hedging decisions for firms facing price risk that can be hedged with vulnerable contracts, i.e., exposed to nonhedgeable endogenous counterparty credit risk. When vulnerable forward contracts are the only hedging instruments available, the firm's optimal level of production is lower than without credit risk. Under plausible conditions on the stochastic dependence between the commodity price and the counterparty's assets, the firm does not sell its entire production on the vulnerable forward market. When options on forward contracts are also available, the optimal hedging strategy requires a long put position. This provides a new rationale for the hedging role of options in the over-the-counter markets exposed to counterparty credit risk. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 28: 248,263, 2008 [source]


Jumping hedges: An examination of movements in copper spot and futures markets

THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 2 2006
Wing H. Chan
Price risk is an important factor for both copper purchasers, who use the commodity as a major input in their production process, and copper refiners, who must deal with cash-flow volatility. Information from NYMEX cash and futures prices is used to examine optimal hedging behavior for agents in copper markets. A bivariate GARCH-jump model with autoregressive jump intensity is proposed to capture the features of the joint distribution of cash and futures returns over two subperiods with different dominant pricing regimes. It is found that during the earlier producerpricing regime this specification is not needed, whereas for the later exchange pricing era jump dynamics stemming from a common jump across cash and futures series are significant in explaining the dynamics in both daily and weekly data sets. Results from the model are used to under-take both within-sample and out-of-sample hedging exercises. These results indicate that there are important gains to be made from a time-varying optimal hedging strategy that incorporates the information from the common jump dynamics. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:169,188, 2006 [source]


Delivery risk and the hedging role of options

THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 4 2002
Donald Lien
Multiple delivery specifications exist on nearly all commodity futures contracts. Sellers typically are allowed to deliver any of several grades of the underlying commodity and at any of several locations. On the delivery day, the futures price as such needs not converge to the spot price of the par-delivery grade at the par-delivery location, thereby imposing an additional delivery risk on hedgers. This article derives the optimal hedging strategy for a risk-averse hedger in the presence of delivery risk. In particular, it is shown that the hedger optimally uses options on futures for hedging purposes. This article provides a rationale for the hedging role of options when futures markets allow for multiple delivery specifications. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:339,354, 2002 [source]


Hedging in Futures and Options Markets with Basis Risk

THE JOURNAL OF FUTURES MARKETS, Issue 1 2002
Olivier Mahul
This paper analyzes the hedging decisions for firms facing price and basis risk. Two conditions assumed in most models on optimal hedging are relaxed. Hence, (i) the spot price is not necessarily linear in both the settlement price and the basis risk and (ii) futures contracts and options on futures at different strike prices are available. The design of the first-best hedging instrument is first derived and then it is used to examine the optimal hedging strategy in futures and options markets. The role of options as useful hedging tools is highlighted from the shape of the first-best solution. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 22:59,72, 2002 [source]