Advantages And Disadvantages Of Derivatives

Mr. Brown readily admitted that he was not at ease discussing the most recent approaches to risk reduction or hedging. He had received his MBA from Harvard in the 1960s and had spent most of his career working for a company that had little international exposure. Moreover, he was not familiar with derivatives such as currency options, which until recently were not widely traded. However, Mr. Brown had recently hired an assistant, Mr. Dan Pross, who had some knowledge of hedging and derivatives. As a student at UCLA, Mr. Pross had traded various types of derivatives for his own portfolio and was familiar with how they were traded. Although Mr. Pross did not have a finance background, he was, in Mr. Brown’s opinion, extremely intelligent and highly capable. Mr. Brown suggested that Mr. Pross make a presentation to the senior management on the use of derivatives to reduce risk.

Derivative contracts were either negotiated with specific counterparties (over-the-counter) or were standardized contracts executed and traded on an exchange. Negotiated over-the-counter derivatives were comprised of forwards, swaps, and specialized options contracts. Over the counter derivatives can be tailored to meet the customers’ needs with respect to time and quantity and they are not traded in an organized exchange. On the other hand, standardized exchange-traded derivatives consisted of futures and options contracts. Even though over-the-counter derivatives were usually not traded like securities in an exchange, they might be terminated or assigned to an alternative counterparty. Standardized derivatives trade on an exchange and have time and quantity that are fixed.

“Over-the-counter derivatives will be required to be traded on regulated exchanges, and the trades will have to be submitted to regulated clearinghouses” (First Data Corporation, 2010). The clearinghouses must also submit proposals to the regulators before accepting swaps for clearing. Regulators will have the authority to impose capital, margin, reporting, record-keeping and code of conduct requirements on swap dealers and participants to ensure there are adequate financial resources to meet their responsibilities (First Data Corporation, 2010).

Financial instruments such as derivatives and available-for-sale are measured and recognized at fair value method. The most common derivatives include forward contracts as an agreement to sell or to buy an asset at a fixed price in the future. Accordance with AASB 139, available-for-sale are those non-derivative that are designated for sale or that are not classified as (a) loans and receivables, (b) held-to-maturity investments or (c) financial assets at fair value through profit or loss. Those financial instruments are initially recognized at their transaction price on market whose identical items (active market). Regarding unavailability active markets, management will perform their judgement and estimation to determine the fair value.

The definition of "derivatives" is also very wide, and includes options and warrants, whoever they are issued by, as well as rights and interests in respect of listed securities (or other derivatives).

Analyze the derivatives market and determine the use of derivatives to efficiently manage investment risks in an investment portfolio.

Nestlé S.A. is a Swiss company and owns a prestigious position being the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness group (Nestlé, 2016). According to its annual report (2015), this company is exposed to many risks caused by movements in foreign currency exchange rates, interest rate and market prices. The foreign exchange risk comes from transactions and translations of foreign operations in Swiss Francs (CHF). The interest rate risk faces the borrowings at fixed and variable rates. The market price risk comes from commodity price and equity price. The former risk arises from world commodity market for the supplies of coffee, cocoa beans, sugar and others. The later risk arises from the fluctuations of the prices of investments held. (Nestle annual reports, 2015). Thus, financial derivatives instruments are used by this multinational corporation in order to hedge these risks.

Futures and options contracts are the two exchange-traded derivatives contracts in the financial market that can be used to manage Alkane’s risks.

Most firms hedge at least some of their risks. Hedging can take two basic forms—namely, natural hedging and hedging by means of derivative instruments. The use of derivatives as hedges has expanded greatly in recent years.

In finance, a futures contract is a standardized contract between two parties to exchange a specified asset of standardized quantity and quality for a price agreed today (the futures price or the strike price) but with delivery occurring at a specified future date, the delivery date. The contracts are traded on a futures exchange. The party agreeing to buy the underlying asset in the future, the "buyer" of the contract, is said to be "long", and the party agreeing to sell the asset in the future, the "seller" of the contract, is said to be "short". The terminology reflects the expectations of the parties -- the buyer hopes the asset price is going to increase, while the seller hopes for a decrease. Note that the contract

The operations of the derivative market has become a rising concern today in the world and in the UK in particular as this market could destabilize the efficiency of the financial market and the economy at large if not managed properly by its users or if a major fault occurs in the derivative market, as it plays a vital role as a risk management instrument in the economy. Financial derivatives had been introduced in the financial markets as an instrument to help manage risk cause by fluctuations in exchange rates, interest rates and stock market prices in the financial

Option Hedges are a right not an obligation to buy or sell a specified currency at a specific rate on a specified future date. It allows for speculation on the upside while still limiting the loss (Eiteman, Stonehill and Moffett, 2010).

According to Goel and Gutierrez, they investigated that fluctuating procurement price is one of the causes of inventory risk and through trading appropriate numbers of futures or forward commodity contracts reduces inventory related costs for effective hedging. Hedging and the price discovery functions of futures markets facilitates not only a better inventory management but enhances the efficiency of marketing operations, production and storage.

Among the most fundamental risks, associated with exchange-traded derivatives, is variable degree of risk. According to Ernst, Koziol, & Schweizer (2011), the transactions in

The Indian economy is witnessing a mini revolution in commodity derivatives and risk management. Commodity options trading and cash settlement of commodity futures had been banned since 1952 and until 2002 commodity derivatives market was virtually nonexistent, except some negligible activity on an OTC basis. Now in September 2005, the country has 3 national level electronic exchanges and 21 regional exchanges for trading commodity derivatives. As many as eighty (80) commodities have been allowed for derivatives trading. The value of trading has been booming and is likely to cross the $ 1 Trillion mark in 2006 and, if all goes well,