ORIGIN OF DERIVATIVES
The origin of derivatives can be traced back to the need of farmers to protect them against actuations in the price of their crop. From the time it was sown to the time it was ready for harvest, farmers would face price uncertainty. Through the use of simple derivative products, it was possible for the farmer to partially or fully transfer price risks by locking in asset prices. These were simple contracts developed to meet the needs of farmers and were basically a means of reducing risk. A farmer who sowed his crop in June faced uncertainty over the price he would receive for his harvest in September. In years of scarcity, he would probably obtain attractive prices. However, during times of oversupply, he would have to dispose off his harvest at a very low price. Clearly this meant that the farmer and his family were exposed to a high risk of price uncertainty.
On the other hand, a merchant with an ongoing requirement of grains too would face a price risk that of having to pay exorbitant prices during dearth, although favorable prices could be obtained during periods of oversupply. Under such circumstances, it clearly made sense for the
Farmer and the merchant to come together and enter into a contract whereby the price of the grain
to be delivered in September could be decided earlier. What they would then negotiate happened to be a futures type contract, which would enable both parties to eliminate the price risk.
In 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade, or CBOT, was established to bring farmers and merchants together. A group of traders got together and created the `ton arrive' contract that permitted farmers to lock in to price upfront and deliver the grain later. These to-arrive contracts proved useful as a device for hedging and speculation on price changes. These were eventually standardised, and in 1925 the first futures clearing house came into existence.
Today, derivative contracts exist on a variety of commodities such as corn, pepper, cotton, wheat, silver, etc. Besides commodities, derivatives contracts also exist on a lot of financial underlying like stocks, interest rate, exchange rate, etc.
DEFINITION
A derivative is a product whose value is derived from the value of one or more underlying variables or assets in a contractual manner. The underlying asset can be equity, forex, commodity or any other asset. In our earlier discussion, we saw that wheat farmers may wish to sell their harvest at a future date to eliminate the risk of a change in prices by that date. Such a transaction is an example of a derivative. The price of this derivative is driven by the spot price of wheat which is the underlying in this case.
The Forwards Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1952, regulates the forward/ futures contracts in commodities all over India. As per this the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) continues to have jurisdiction over commodity forward/ futures contracts. However when derivatives trading in securities was introduced in 2001, the term insecurity in the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (SCRA), was amended to include derivative contracts in securities. Consequently, regulation of derivatives came under the preview of Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI). We thus have separate regulatory authorities for securities and commodity derivative markets. Derivatives are securities under the SCRA and hence the trading of derivatives is governed by the regulatory framework under the SCRA. The Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (SC(R)A) defines “derivative” to include
2. A contract, which derives its value from the prices, or index of prices, of underlying securities.
No comments:
Post a Comment