Task
In this assignment, you will solve problems on hedging with futures and forwards.
Instructions
- Use your textbook to answer the following questions from Chapter 5:
- Exercise 13 and 14.
- Please, upload xls, xlsx file.
- Please, use the full computing power of Excel.
Questions
13. A US-based corporation has decided to make an investment in Sweden, for which it
will require a sum of 100 million Swedish kronor (SEK) in three-months’ time. The
company wishes to hedge changes in the US dollar (USD)-SEK exchange rate using
forward contracts on either the euro (EUR) or the Swiss franc (CHF) and has made the
following estimates:
• If EUR forwards are used: The standard deviation of quarterly changes in the
USD/SEK spot exchange rate is 0.007, the standard deviation of quarterly changes
in the USD/EUR forward rate is 0.018, and the correlation between the changes is
0.90.
• If CHF forwards are used: The standard deviation of quarterly changes in the
USD/SEK spot exchange rate is 0.007, the standard deviation of quarterly changes
in the USD/CHF forward rate is 0.023, and the correlation between the changes is
0.85.
Finally, the current USD/SEK spot rate is 0.104, the current three-month USD/EUR
forward rate is 0.471, and the current three-month USD/CHF forward rate is 0.602.
(a) Which currency should the company use for hedging purposes?
(b) What is the minimum-variance hedge position? Indicate if this is to be a long or
short position.
14. You use silver wire in manufacturing. You are looking to buy 100,000 oz of silver in
three months’ time and need to hedge silver price changes over these three months.
One COMEX silver futures contract is for 5,000 oz. You run a regression of daily silver
spot price changes on silver futures price changes and find that
δs = 0.03 + 0.89δF +
What should be the size (number of contracts) of your optimal futures position? Should
this be long or short?
