1. In mid-December, a bank Treasurer projects that loan demand will require a $10 million borrowing on March 15. The contractual loan rate is 125 basis points over LIBOR. As of December 15, the 3-month LIBOR rate was 8.375 percent and the March Eurodollar futures rate was 11.85 percent (price 88.15). The Treasurer is concerned that interest rates may rise between December and March. The projection for the future is that on March 15, the 3-month LIBOR rate would be 11.125 percent, and the Eurodollar futures rate would be 14.75 percent (price 85.25).
a. State what kind of hedge would he take and why.
b. Compute the firm's actual interest cost in dollars.
c. Compute gain or loss in the futures market after describing the transactions.
d. Calculate effective annualized interest cost.
2. On August 2, a securities dealer, Ms. Cindy Zaicko, responsible for a $10 million bond portfolio is concerned that interest rates are expected to be highly volatile over the next 3 months. The fund manager decides to use Treasury bond futures to hedge the value of the bond portfolio. The current price on a December T-bond futures is 91-22. During the period August 2 to November 2, interest rates climbed rapidly causing the bond portfolio value to drop as prices of T-Bonds declined from 100-00 to 95-11. On November 2, the December T-Bond futures contract was priced at 88-26. The portfolio was sold at its market value on Nov. 2. The minimum contract size for the T-Bond futures contract is $100,000 and the minimum price change is $15.625 per tick of 1/64 (1/2 of 1/32).
a. State what kind of hedge could Ms. Zaicko take and why.
b. Compute the opportunity cost of waiting to sell the portfolio. Describe all transactions clearly.
c. Compute gain or loss in the futures market after describing the transactions.
d. Calculate the effective revenue with the hedge. Describe all transactions clearly.
3. Suppose that on May 23, 2011, a U.S. firm agrees to buy 1,000 motorcycles from the Japanese firm, Kawasaki, on November 20 at a price of ¥202,350 each. The firm fears that the U.S. $ will depreciate against the yen before the sale date making the yen it must buy more expensive. It decides to take a long hedge in Japanese yen futures for December delivery. Assume that the U.S. firm needs 16 futures contracts to hedge its exposure completely. The minimum contract size for the Japanese yen futures contract is ¥12,500,000 and the minimum price change is $12.50 per tick of 0.000001. Yen prices were as follows:
May 23 November 20
Spot rate $0.0128118/¥ $0.0130422/¥
December Futures $0.0129190/¥ $0.0131241/¥
a. State what kind of hedge could be taken and why.
b. Calculate the opportunity cost of waiting to pay for the motorcycles in November. Describe all transactions clearly.
c. Compute the gain or loss in the futures hedge after describing in detail all transactions.
d. Calculate the actual cost of purchasing the motorcycles with the hedge.