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Transcript of 95189683 Derivative Markets
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INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
I. INTRODUCTION
Derivative markets are investment markets that are geared toward the buying
and selling of derivatives.
I.i. What are Derivatives?
Derivatives are financial contracts that are designed to create market price
exposure to changes in an underlying commodity, asset or event. In general they
do not involve the exchange or transfer of principal or title. Rather their purpose is
to capture, in the form of price changes, some underlying price change or event.
In other words Derivatives are securities, or financial instruments, that get their
value, or at least part of their value, from the value of another security, which iscalled the underlier. The underlier can come in many forms including,
commodities, mortgages, stocks, bonds, or currency. The reason investors may
invest in a derivative security is to hedge their bet. By investing in something
based on a more stable underlier, the investor is assuming less risk than if he
invested in a risky security without an underlier.
The term derivative refers to how the prices of these contracts are derived from
the price of some underlying security or commodity or from some index, interest
rate, exchange rate or event.
Examples of derivatives include futures, forwards, options and swaps, and these
can be combined with each other or traditional securities and loans in order to
create hybrid instruments or structured securities.
I.ii. Historical Background:
As a testament to their usefulness, derivatives have played a role in commerce
and finance for thousands of years. The first known instance of derivatives
trading dates to 2000 B.C. when merchants, in what is now called Bahrain Islandin the Arab Gulf, made consignment transactions for goods to be sold in India.
A more literary reference comes some 2,350 years ago from Aristotle who
discussed a case of market manipulation through the use of derivatives on olive
oil press capacity in Chapter 9 of his Politics.
II. FORMS OF DERIVATIVE MARKETS
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There are actually two distinct forms of the derivative market. It is possible to
purchase and sell derivatives in the form of futures or as over-the-counter
offerings. Derivatives are traded on derivatives exchanges, such as the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange (CME) which employs both open outcry in "pits" andelectronic order matching systems, and in over-the-counter markets where
trading is usually centered around a few dealers and conducted over the phone
or electronic messages. It is not unusual for investors who are interested in
derivatives to actively participate in both of these financial markets.
Derivatives can be considered as providing a form of insurance in Hedging,
which is itself a technique that attempts to reduce risk.
Derivatives allow risk related to the price of the underlying asset to be transferred
from one party to another. For example, a wheat farmer and a miller could sign a
futures contract to exchange a specified amount of cash for a specified amount
of wheat in the future. Both parties have reduced a future risk: for the wheat
farmer, the uncertainty of the price, and for the miller, the availability of wheat.
However, there is still the risk that no wheat will be available because of events
unspecified by the contract, such as the weather, or that one party will renege on
the contract. Although a third party, called a clearing house, insures a futures
contract, not all derivatives are insured against counter-party risk.
II.i. Future Markets:
In the case of futures, there are futures markets around the world that allow
trading that involves derivative contracts. In this type of financial market
environment, the exchange functions as a counterparty to members engaged in
buying and selling activity.
The process for investing in futures in a derivative market works by establishing a
situation where one party sells one futures contract while the counterparty
purchases a new futures contract. The result of the two transactions effectivelyproduces a position that is considered to be at zero. This approach essentially
transfers the bulk of the risk to the counterparty in the arrangement and makes it
possible to earn a return by exchanging a long position for a short one.
II.ii. Over-The-Counter (OTC) Markets:
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A derivative market situation may also exist in over-the-counter or OTC markets.
In this scenario, the derivatives focus on larger clients such as government
entities, investment banks and hedge funds. Trading on these markets can
involve several different types of options, including credit derivatives. The volumeof the trading activity is substantial, involving significant amounts of resources on
the part of the investors involved.
The size of derivatives markets is enormous, and by some measures it exceeds
that for bank lending, securities and insurance. Data collected by the Bank of
International Settlements (BIS) show that the amounts outstanding in the over-
the-counter (OTC) market and those at derivatives exchanges have exceeded
billions of US dollars.
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III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DERIVATIVES
Today, derivatives are used to hedge the risks normally associated with
commerce and finance.
III.i. Advantages:
Farmers can use derivatives the hedge the risk that the price of their crops
fall before they are harvested and brought to the market.
Banks can use derivatives to reduce the risk that the short-term interest
rates they pay to their depositors will raise and reduce the profit they earn
on fixed interest rate loans and securities.
Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the world largest end-
users of derivatives use interest rate swaps, options and swaptions to
hedge against the prepayment risk associated with home mortgage
financing.
Electricity producers hedge against unseasonable changes in the weather.
Pension funds use derivatives to hedge against large drops in the value of
their portfolios.
Insurance companies sell credit protection to banks and securities firms
through the use of credit derivatives.
In addition to risk management, derivatives markets play a very useful economic
role in price discovery. Price discovery is the way in which a market establishes
the price or prices for items traded in that market, and then disseminates those
prices as information throughout the market and the economy as a whole. In this
way market prices are important not just to those buying and selling but also
those producing and consuming in other markets and in other locations and all
those affected by commodity and security price levels, exchange rates and
interest rates.
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The use of derivatives also has its other benefits:
Derivatives facilitate the buying and selling of risk and many people
consider this to have a positive impact on the economic system. Althoughsomeone loses money while someone else gains money with a derivative,
under normal circumstances, trading in derivatives should not adversely
affect the economic system because it is not zero-sum in utility.
Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan commented in
2003 that he believed that the use of derivatives has softened the impact
of the economic downturn at the beginning of the 21st century.
III.ii. Disadvantages:
Derivatives play a useful and important role in hedging and risk management, but
they also pose several dangers to the stability of financial markets and thereby
the overall economy.
Along with these economic benefits come costs or potential economic costs. As
an indication of the dangers they pose, it is worthwhile recalling a shortened list
of recent disasters.
Long-Term Capital Management collapsed with $1.4 trillion in derivatives
on their books. In the process it froze up the U.S dollar fixed income
market.
Sumitomo Bank in Japan used derivatives in their manipulation of the
global copper market in the mid-1990s.
Barings Bank, one of the oldest in Europe, was quickly brought to
bankruptcy by over a billion dollars in losses from derivatives trading.
Derivatives dealer Enron collapsed in 2001 the large bankruptcy in US
history at the time and caused collateral damage throughout the energy
sector. In the process it was disclosed how Enron and other energy
merchant, i.e. energy derivatives dealers, used derivatives to manipulate
electricity and gas markets during California's energy crisis.
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The use of derivatives for tax evasion was also brought to light.
In 2002, the Allied Irish Bank's Allfirst lost $750 million trading in foreign
exchange options.
Both the Mexican financial crisis in 1994 and the East Asian financial crisis
of 1997 were exacerbated by the use of derivatives to take large positions
involving the exchange rate.
Criticism:
Derivatives are often subject to the following criticisms:
Possible large losses
The use of derivatives can result in large losses because of the use of
leverage, or borrowing. Derivatives allow investors to earn large returns from
small movements in the underlying asset's price. However, investors could
lose large amounts if the price of the underlying moves against them
significantly. There have been several instances of massive losses in
derivative markets, such as:
The need to recapitalize insurer American International
Group (AIG) with US$85 billion of debt provided by the US federal
government. An AIG subsidiary had lost more than US$18 billion
over the preceding three quarters on Credit Default Swaps (CDS) it
had written. It was reported that the recapitalization was necessary
because further losses were foreseeable over the next few
quarters.
The loss of US$7.2 Billion by Socit Gnrale in January
2008 through misuse of futures contracts.
The loss of US$6.4 billion in the failed fund Amaranth
Advisors, which was long natural gas in September 2006 when the
price plummeted.
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The loss of US$1.3 billion equivalent in oil derivatives in
1993 and 1994 by Metallgesellschaft AG.
Counter-party risk
Some derivatives (especially swaps) expose investors to counter-party risk.
For example, suppose a person wanting a fixed interest rate loan for his
business, but finding that banks only offer variable rates, swaps payments
with another business who wants a variable rate, synthetically creating a fixed
rate for the person. However, if the second business goes bankrupt, it can't
pay its variable rate and so the first business will lose its fixed rate and will be
paying a variable rate again. If interest rates have increased, it is possible that
the first business may be adversely affected, because it may not be prepared
to pay the higher variable rate.
Different types of derivatives have different levels of counter-party risk. For
example, standardized stock options by law require the party at risk to have a
certain amount deposited with the exchange, showing that they can pay for
any losses; banks that help businesses swap variable for fixed rates on loans
may do credit checks on both parties. However, in private agreements
between two companies, for example, there may not be benchmarks for
performing due diligence and risk analysis.
Large notional value
Derivatives typically have a large notional value. As such, there is the
danger that their use could result in losses that the investor would be unable
to compensate for. The possibility that this could lead to a chain reaction
ensuing in an economic crisis, has been pointed out by famed investor
Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 2002 annual report. Buffett called
them 'financial weapons of mass destruction.'The problem with derivatives is
that they control an increasingly larger notional amount of assets and this
may lead to distortions in the real capital and equities markets. Investorsbegin to look at the derivatives markets to make a decision to buy or sell
securities and so what was originally meant to be a market to transfer risk
now becomes a leading indicator.
Leverage of an economy's debt
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Derivatives massively leverage the debt in an economy, making it ever
more difficult for the underlying real economy to service its debt obligations,
thereby curtailing real economic activity, which can cause a recession or even
depression.
Financial Crises of 2007-2010:
The derivative markets have been accused lately for their alleged role in the
financial crisis of 2007-2010. The leveraged operations are said to have
generated an irrational appeal for risk taking, and the lack of clearing
obligations also appeared as very damaging for the balance of the market.
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IV. MAJOR CONCERNS & RECOMMENDATIONS
IV.i. Major Concerns:
The first and most obvious concern is the way in which derivatives
markets expand risk-taking activity relative to capital. By enhancing the
efficiency of transactions and the leveraging of capital, derivatives can
increase speculation just as well as they lower the cost of hedging.
Secondly, derivatives markets can provide new opportunities for
destructive activities such as fraud and manipulation; and they can
facilitate unproductive activities such as outflanking prudential financial
market regulations, manipulating accounting rules and evading or
avoiding taxation.
The third concern involves the creation of new types and levels of
credit risk as OTC derivatives contracts are traded in order to shift
various types of market risk. The new credit risk is not subject to
collateral (i.e. margin) requirements, and is not handled in the most
economically efficient manner.
The fourth concern is the liquidity risk, especially in the interest rate
swaps market, which is susceptible to creditworthiness problems at
one or more of the major market participants.
The last concern is systemic risk, arising especially from the OTC
derivative markets, and the strong linkages between derivatives and
underlying asset and commodity markets
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IV.ii. Recommendations:
Concerning derivatives the recent financial crises has shown us that
guarantee of completion of operations is a goal to achieve, avoiding in
this way counter party risk.
To achieve this goal the settlement & clearing house (derivative
organized markets) has a key role.
Having a settlement & clearing house means a effort of standardization
of products and this is not always possible.
One of the potential implications of this scenario is the potentialcontraction of the size of OTC markets.
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V. CONCLUSION
The appeal of a derivative market has to do with the potential for a larger return
than is usually the case with other forms of investment. In like manner, the ability
to transfer the liability from one party to another is also appealing in somesituations. While it is true that derivatives can be somewhat volatile, the fact is
that many of the trades conducted on a derivative market carry no more risk than
in investment markets. As long as the investor performs due diligence as it
relates to understanding past, current, and projected performance, it is possible
to do very well in a derivatives market.