You own a large warehouse full of pork bellies. You plan to sell them in the near future for a sweet price. But...you start to get worried. There's word that scientists at CalTech have started growing synthetic pork bellies in a lab. They might perfect the process in the near future, and the bottom will drop out of the market.
You need a way to protect yourself against declining prices. Time for a selling hedge.
This process involves selling futures contracts (or options contracts) in order to hedge against a potential drop in the price of an underlying security or commodity (like your pork bellies). The goal is to provide a safety net...to protect yourself against the downside.
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Finance: What is a Derivative?23 Views
finance a la shmoop what is a derivative? well it's derived it's a something taken
from something else like a derivative of hot weather is thirst a derivative of [Girl takes sip of glass of water on a beach]
hunger is well you know crankiness that's diva thing you get there...
derivative of a 1/32 quarterback rating in the NFL is like serious wealth yeah
yeah discount double shmoop yeah look for it be on there with aaron
and a derivative of a stock or bond or other security is a something which
derives its value based on the performance of that underlying security
there are basically two flavors of derivative put options ie the right to [Ice cream flavors appear]
sell a security at a given price over a given time period and a call option, ie
right to buy a security at a given price over a given time period
well the price of that option is derived from the price of the security and a few
other factors like strike prices and duration and all that stuff
colonel electric the downgraded new version of General Electric is trading [Colonel Electric appears in a suit]
for 25 bucks a share a derivative of its share price is sold in the form of a
call option with a $30 strike price expiring about 90 days from now on the
third Friday of the end of that month well investors pay a price albeit
probably a small one for the right to then pay 30 bucks a share for colonel [Call option appears for colonel electric]
electric at any time in the next 90 ish days until that option expires making the bet
that the stock will go well above 30 bucks a share in that time period that
call option is thus a derivative of the colonel electric primary stock price got
it if you really want to get personal well here's the ultimate form of
derivative [Baby laying down]
Up Next
What is a put option? A put option is a type of contract that lets the investor sell shares of a stock at a certain price and within a window of ti...
What is a call option? A call option is a type of contract that lets the investor buy shares of a stock at a certain price and within a window of t...