Limits to arbitrage and hedging: Evidence from commodity markets

We build an equilibrium model of commodity markets in which speculators are capital constrained, and commodity producers have hedging demands for commodity futures. Increases in producers' hedging demand or speculators' capital constraints increase hedging costs via price-pressure on futures. These in turn affect producers' equilibrium hedging and supply decision inducing a link between a financial friction in the futures market and the commodity spot prices. Consistent with the model, measures of producers' propensity to hedge forecasts futures returns and spot prices in oil and gas market data from 1979 to 2010. The component of the commodity futures risk premium associated with producer hedging demand rises when speculative activity reduces. We conclude that limits to financial arbitrage generate limits to hedging by producers, and affect equilibrium commodity supply and prices.     

Selective hedging strategies for crude oil futures based on market state expectations

This paper studies the ex-ante selective hedging strategies of crude oil futures contracts based on market state expectations and compares the hedging performances to the traditional minimum variance routine hedging strategies. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it achieves a trade-off between return and risk, rather than hedges risk at all costs. Specifically, we first use a multi-input Hidden Markov Model(HMM) to identify the market state, assess the market’s herding impact, and then integrate the findings of identification and measurement to forecast the price trend. We offer an adjustment criterion for the hedge ratios driven by GARCH²-type models based on the anticipated market state. We conducted an empirical analysis to examine the hedging effect of WTI and Brent crude oil futures, the results indicate that the proposed state-dependent hedging strategies are superior to the traditional model-driven hedging strategies concerning the hedged portfolio based on four criteria. The robustness check reveals that the proposed hedging strategies still outperform in different market situation. The findings can help traders in the crude oil markets, and the methodology can be applied to other energy markets.     

Better cross hedges with composite hedging? Hedging equity portfolios using financial and commodity futures

Unless a direct hedge is available, cross hedging must be used. In such circumstances portfolio theory implies that a composite hedge (the use of two or more hedging instruments to hedge a single spot position) will be beneficial. The study and use of composite hedging has been neglected; possibly because it requires the estimation of two or more hedge ratios. This paper demonstrates a statistically significant increase in out-of-sample effectiveness from the composite hedging of the Amex Oil Index using S&P500 and New York Mercantile Exchange crude oil futures. This conclusion is robust to the technique used to estimate the hedge ratios, and to allowance for transactions costs, dividends and the maturity of the futures contracts.     

Risk premia in crude oil futures prices

If commercial producers or financial investors use futures contracts to hedge against commodity price risk, the arbitrageurs who take the other side of the contracts may receive compensation for their assumption of nondiversifiable risk in the form of positive expected returns from their positions. We show that this interaction can produce an affine factor structure to commodity futures prices, and develop new algorithms for estimation of such models using unbalanced data sets in which the duration of observed contracts changes with each observation. We document significant changes in oil futures risk premia since 2005, with the compensation to the long position smaller on average in more recent data. This observation is consistent with the claim that index-fund investing has become more important relative to commerical hedging in determining the structure of crude oil futures risk premia over time.     

中国农产品期货主力及近月合约套期保值效果研究

主力合约和近月合约的偏离是中国期货市场特有的现实问题,它在一定程度上阻碍对中国期货市场功能的发挥。文章以ZCE棉花和DCE豆一期货为代表对中国农产品期货市场进行研究,研究发现,中国ZCE棉花和DCE豆一期货的近月合约套期保值效果明显优于主力合约套期保值效果,但均远远低于发达期货市场的套期保值效果。根据研究结果,本研究结合实际提出几个有针对性的措施,以利于中国农产品期货功能的发挥。     

The Traditional Hedging Model Revisited with a Nonobservable Convenience Yield

This article examines the hedging of constrained commodity positions with futures contracts. We extend the study of Adler and Detemple (1988a, 1988b) to include a partial information framework where the convenience yield is not observable. As a consequence, futures prices depend on investor's beliefs regarding the value of the convenience yield, and every component of the hedge is impacted by these beliefs. We achieve a decomposition of the demand that clarifies the impact on the optimal hedge of the beliefs, the spot price and the risk‐free rate as well as the hedging horizon.     

Hedging long-term exposures with multiple short-term futures contracts

This article analyzes the problem facing an agent who has along-term commodity supply commitment and who wishes to hedgethat commitment using short-maturity commodity futures contracts.As time evolves, the agent has to roll the hedge as old futurescontracts mature and new futures contracts are listed. Thisgives rise to hedge errors. The optimal hedging strategy ischaracterized in a world where contracts of several differentmaturities coexist. The strategy is independent both of theagent's risk aversion and, under certain conditions, of beliefsabout expected returns from holding futures contracts. The methodologyis compared with approaches based on dynamic models of the termstructure. It is tested on data from the oil futures market.     

Hedging effectiveness of the Athens stock index futures contracts

This paper examines the hedging effectiveness of the FTSE/ATHEX-20 and FTSE/ATHEX Mid-40 stock index futures contracts in the relatively new and fairly unresearched futures market of Greece. Both in-sample and out-of-sample hedging performances using weekly and daily data are examined, considering both constant and time-varying hedge ratios. Results indicate that time-varying hedging strategies provide incremental risk-reduction benefits in-sample, but under-perform simple constant hedging strategies out-of-sample. Moreover, futures contracts serve effectively their risk management role and compare favourably with results in other international stock index futures markets. Estimation of investor utility functions and corresponding optimal utility maximising hedge ratios yields similar results, in terms of model selection. For the FTSE/ATHEX Mid-40 contracts we identify the existence of speculative components, which lead to utility-maximising hedge ratios, that are different to the minimum variance hedge ratio solutions.     

Optimal Hedging under Intertemporally Dependent Preferences

This paper examines optimal hedging behavior in a market where preferences for current consumption are partly determined by the consumer's past consumption history. The model considers an individual exposed to price risk, who allocates wealth between consumption and futures contracts over a (continuous-time) finite planning horizon. The speculative component of the hedge ratio is shown to be smaller and the consumption path smoother than in models where preferences are separable over time. Some comparative-static properties of the hedge ratio are also examined.     

DURATION,IMMUNIZATION, AND HEDGING WITH INTEREST RATE FUTURES

The recent advent of the interest rate futures markets has greatly enriched the hedging opportunities of market participants faced with undesired interest rate risk. The variety of futures contracts presently spans a number of instruments with different risk, maturity, and coupon characteristics. This paper modifies the concept of duration and extends the duration hedging approach to cases where futures contracts are used as the hedging instrument. The derived hedge ratios take into account differences in coupon, maturity, and risk for three different regimes. Usage of these hedge ratios should lead to more efficient hedging of interest rate risk.     

Do the crude oil futures of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange improve asset allocation of Chinese petrochemical-related stocks?

The Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) facilitates both local and international investment in Chinese petrochemical-related stocks through local crude oil futures. This study investigates whether the Chinese emerging market can better aid investors' risk hedging and asset allocation compared to two major international developed markets–the Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures markets—and examines the pairwise risk hedging effects and multi-asset allocation performance of INE and petrochemical-related stocks. The results show that INE has higher hedge effectiveness than Brent and WTI under pairwise hedging. Further, in multi-asset allocation, the portfolios containing INE outperform other portfolios. Overall, INE results in a better diversification effect and volatility reduction than the use of WTI crude oil futures to construct multi-asset allocation with Chinese petrochemical-related stocks. However, INE performance is inferior to Brent's in terms of constructing portfolios with oil or energy stocks. Finally, our results are robust to the five factors proposed by Fama and French (2015) in asset pricing.     

Swap variance hedging and efficiency: The role of high moments

In this article, we propose a new theoretical approach for developing hedging strategies based on swap variance (SwV). SwV is a generalized risk measure equivalent to a polynomial combination of all moments of a return distribution. Using the S&P 500 index and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil spot and futures price data, as well as simulations by varying the distribution of asset returns, we investigate the dynamic differences between hedge ratios and portfolio performances based on SwV (with high moments) and variance (without high moments). We find that, on average, the minimizing-SwV hedging suggests more short futures contracts than minimizing-variance hedging; however, when market conditions deteriorate, the minimizing-SwV hedging suggests fewer short positions in futures. The superior posthedge performances of the mean-SwV hedged portfolios over the mean-variance hedged portfolios in highly volatile or extremely calm markets confirm the efficiency of the mean-SwV hedging strategy.     

A note on managing deposit flows with cash and futures market decisions

As deposit market become less regulated, financial intermediaries must focus more of their attention on the explicit pricing of deposit accounts. An implication of pricing deposits is that the intermediary faces a random source of funds when future deposit supplies are unknown. This note shows that financial futures contracts can be used to hedge the risk of deposit withdrawals, allowing the financial firm to set lower deposit rates than it would without futures trading. A model of risk averse banking behavior is constructed to determine the relationship between hedging deposit withdrawals and setting deposit rates. Using the certificate of deposit futures contract to hedge demand and savings deposit withdrawals, an empirical application of the model reveals that the possible gains in profitability from setting deposit rates and hedging withdrawals are small but statistically significant.     

Using futures contracts for corporate hedging: The problem of expiry and a possible solution

Companies using futures contracts for hedging purposes need to roll over their contracts if the maturity of their exposure exceeds that of the futures contracts. This entails basis risk that can reduce significantly the effectiveness of the hedge. In this paper an alternative form of futures contract is proposed. the contract never expires and can be used for long-term hedging without the need for rolling-over into a new contract. the contract is shown to be equivalent to a portfolio of conventional futures contracts of differing maturities. Its price is determined by arbitrage against the underlying asset.     

Corporate Hedging: The Relevance of Contract Specifications and Banking Relationships

This article examines the contribution of hedging to firm value and the cost of hedging in a unified framework. Optimal hedging and firm value are explicitly linked to firm risk, the type of debt covenants and the relative priority of the hedging contract. It is shown that in some cases hedging is possible only if the counterparty to the forward contract also holds a significant portion of the debt. Also, the spread in the hedging contract reduces the optimal amount of hedging to less than the minimum-variance hedge ratio. Among other results this article elucidates why some firms hedge using forward contracts while other firms hedge in the futures markets, as well as why higher priority forward contracts are more efficient hedging vehicles.     

INTEREST RATE HEDGING: AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES

For hedging, financial and agricultural futures contracts differ in their usefulness. This paper presents a new hedging approach uniquely appropriate to financial futures that better fits the typical hedging situation confronted by those wishing to hedge interest rate risk. The superiority of this new hedging strategy is demonstrated empirically by comparing the strategy with several other methods currently in use.     

SELECTIVE HEDGING OF BANK ASSETS WITH TREASURY BILL FUTURES CONTRACTS

The recent volatility of interest rates, the associated profit pressures imposed on banks, and the surge in the development of new contracts have stimulated a desire to understand and apply financial futures hedging to banking operations. This paper models interest rate futures contracts in a theory of bank behavior to illustrate the hedging of bank loans as well as government securities. The model predicts the hedge will be greater (1) the greater the expected rise in interest rates and (2) the greater the effect of disintermediation on bank deposits. A simulation of the financial futures trading strategy is reported for banks of various asset sizes using data from the Eleventh Federal Reserve District. Depending on bank risk aversion and interest rate expectations, hedging the bank's total interest rate exposure with T-bill futures reduces the variability of unhedged profits by 80 percent.     

Analytics Underlying the Metallgesellschaft Hedge: Short Term Futures in a Multi-Period Environment

In a highly publicized example, a marketing and refining subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft controlled short term derivative positions reportedly equivalent to 160 million barrels of oil, 80 times the daily output of Kuwait. Presumably, the short term positions were taken to hedge oil contracts to customers over an extended period. This paper develops the analytics underlying the hedging of long term flow commitments with short term futures contracts. Its contributions includes the determination of minimum variance hedging paths for multiperiod flow portfolios and the evaluation of both period-by-period and end-of-horizon volatilities under various hedging schemes. The analysis allows for basis risk, non-zero cost-of-carry, and spot diffusion processes that have a non-zero market price of risk. The results are developed in the context of an efficient market and standard equilibrium pricing models.     

Information connectedness of international crude oil futures: Evidence from SC,WTI, and Brent

The first Yuan (RMB) denominated crude oil futures contract, SC, was launched in the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) on 26 March 2018, which is extremely meaningful for China and other Asian countries by offering a new option of oil price risk management. To identify the information connectedness among this emerging contract and those mature WTI and Brent oil futures, we provide return and volatility directional connectedness evidence among them in both the time and frequency domains. The empirical results show that, firstly the three oil futures of SC, WTI, and Brent present high degree of total connectedness in the return and volatility series, implying tight information transfer among them. Secondly, the net directional connectedness results suggest that the SC can provide competitive information on oil returns and is a net and powerful contributor to volatility shocks. In addition, from a frequency-specific perspective, we find that the SC appears to be not only a net transmitter of return shocks on the medium- and long-term frequencies but also a net transmitter of volatility shocks consistently across the whole frequency ranges. The overall evidence suggests that China's new oil futures is an active participant in the international oil futures market, and may become an important product in information transmission across international crude oil futures markets by providing effective hedging instrument for crude oil producers, refiners, consumers, and investors, especially those in Asia.     

Hedging with Chinese metal futures

This paper evaluates different hedging strategies for aluminum and copper futures contracts traded at Shanghai Futures Exchange. In addition to usual candidates such as the traditional regression hedge ratio and the hedging strategy constructed from bivariate fractionally integrated generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (BFIGARCH) model, two advanced specifications are proposed to account for impacts of the basis on market volatility and co-movements between spot and futures returns. Empirical results suggest that the basis has asymmetric effects and optimal hedging strategy constructed from the asymmetric BFIGARCH model tends to produce the best in-sample and out-of-sample hedging performance.