CAPITAL MARKET INSTRUMENTS

Evolution
Indian Stock Markets are one of the oldest in Asia. Its history dates back to nearly 200 years ago. The earliest records of security dealings in India are meagre and obscure. The East India Company was the dominant institution in those days and business in its loan securities used to be transacted towards the close of the eighteenth century. By 1830's business on corporate stocks and shares in Bank and Cotton presses took place in Bombay. Though the trading list was broader in 1839, there were only half a dozen brokers recognized by banks and merchants during 1840 and 1850. The 1850's witnessed a rapid development of commercial enterprise and brokerage business attracted many men into the field and by 1860 the number of brokers increased into 60. In 1860-61 the American Civil War broke out and cotton supply from United States of Europe was stopped; thus, the 'Share Mania' in India begun. The number of brokers increased to about 200 to 250. However, at the end of the American Civil War, in 1865, a disastrous slump began (for example, Bank of Bombay Share which had touched Rs 2850 could only be sold at Rs. 87). At the end of the American Civil War, the brokers who thrived out of Civil War in 1874, found a place in a street (now appropriately called as Dalal Street) where they would conveniently assemble and transact business. In 1887, they formally established in Bombay, the "Native Share and Stock Brokers' Association" (which is alternatively known as " The Stock Exchange "). In 1895, the Stock Exchange acquired a premise in the same street and it was inaugurated in 1899. Thus, the Stock Exchange at Bombay was consolidated.

Other leading cities in stock market operations

Ahmedabad gained importance next to Bombay with respect to cotton textile industry. After 1880, many mills originated from Ahmedabad and rapidly forged ahead. As new mills were floated, the need for a Stock Exchange at Ahmedabad was realised and in 1894 the brokers formed "The Ahmedabad Share and Stock Brokers' Association". What the cotton textile industry was to Bombay and Ahmedabad, the jute industry was to Calcutta. Also tea and coal industries were the other major industrial groups in Calcutta. After the Share Mania in 1861-65, in the 1870's there was a sharp boom in jute shares, which was followed by a boom in tea shares in the 1880's and 1890's; and a coal boom between 1904 and 1908. On June 1908, some leading brokers formed "The Calcutta Stock Exchange Association". In the beginning of the twentieth century, the industrial revolution was on the way in India with the Swadeshi Movement; and with the inauguration of the Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited in 1907, an important stage in industrial advancement under Indian enterprise was reached. Indian cotton and jute textiles, steel, sugar, paper and flour mills and all companies generally enjoyed phenomenal prosperity, due to the First World War. In 1920, the then demure city of Madras had the maiden thrill of a stock exchange functioning in its midst, under the name and style of "The Madras Stock Exchange" with 100 members. However, when boom faded, the number of members stood reduced from 100 to 3, by 1923, and so it went out of existence. In 1935, the stock market activity improved, especially in South India where there was a rapid increase in the number of textile mills and many plantation companies were floated. In 1937,

a stock exchange was once again organized in Madras - Madras Stock Exchange Association (Pvt) Limited. (In 1957 the name was changed to Madras Stock Exchange Limited). Lahore Stock Exchange was formed in 1934 and it had a brief life. It was merged with the Punjab Stock Exchange Limited, which was incorporated in 1936.

Indian Stock Exchanges - An Umbrella Growth

The Second World War broke out in 1939. It gave a sharp boom which was followed by a slump. But, in 1943, the situation changed radically, when India was fully mobilized as a supply base. On account of the restrictive controls on cotton, bullion, seeds and other commodities, those dealing in them found in the stock market as the only outlet for their activities. They were anxious to join the trade and their number was swelled by numerous others. Many new associations were constituted for the purpose and Stock Exchanges in all parts of the country were floated. The Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Limited (1940), Nagpur Stock Exchange Limited (1940) and Hyderabad Stock Exchange Limited (1944) were incorporated. In Delhi two stock exchanges - Delhi Stock and Share Brokers' Association Limited and the Delhi Stocks and Shares Exchange Limited - were floated and later in June 1947, amalgamated into the Delhi Stock Exchnage Association Limited.

Post-independence Scenario
Most of the exchanges suffered almost a total eclipse during depression. Lahore Exchange was closed during partition of the country and later migrated to Delhi and merged with Delhi Stock Exchange. Bangalore Stock Exchange Limited was registered in 1957 and recognized in 1963. Most of the other exchanges languished till 1957 when they applied to the Central Government for recognition under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. Only Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad and Indore, the well established exchanges, were recognized under the Act. Some of the members of the other Associations were required to be admitted by the recognized stock exchanges on a concessional basis, but acting on the principle of unitary control, all these pseudo stock exchanges were refused recognition by the Government of India and they thereupon ceased to function. Thus, during early sixties there were eight recognized stock exchanges in India (mentioned above). The number virtually remained unchanged, for nearly two decades. During eighties, however, many stock exchanges were established: Cochin Stock Exchange (1980), Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Association Limited (at Kanpur, 1982), and Pune Stock Exchange Limited (1982), Ludhiana Stock Exchange Association Limited (1983), Gauhati Stock Exchange Limited (1984), Kanara Stock Exchange Limited (at Mangalore, 1985), Magadh Stock Exchange Association (at Patna, 1986), Jaipur Stock Exchange Limited (1989), Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange Association Limited (1989), Saurashtra Kutch Stock Exchange Limited (at Rajkot, 1989), Vadodara Stock Exchange Limited (at Baroda, 1990) and recently established exchanges - Coimbatore and Meerut. Thus, at present, there are totally twenty one recognized stock exchanges in India excluding the Over The Counter Exchange of India Limited (OTCEI) and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSEIL). The Table given below portrays the overall growth pattern of Indian stock markets since independence. It is quite evident from the Table that Indian stock markets have not only grown just in number of exchanges, but also in number of listed companies and in capital of listed

companies. The remarkable growth after 1985 can be clearly seen from the Table, and this was due to the favouring government policies towards security market industry.

Growth Pattern of the Indian Stock Market

Sl.No. 1 2 As on 31st December No. of Stock Exchanges No. of Listed Cos. No. of Stock 3 Issues of Listed Cos. 4 Capital of Listed Cos. (Cr. Rs.) Market value of 5 Capital of Listed Cos. (Cr. Rs.) Capital per 6 Listed Cos. (4/2) (Lakh Rs.) Market Value of 7 Capital per Listed Cos. (Lakh Rs.) (5/2) Appreciated value 8 of Capital per Listed Cos. (Lak Rs.) Source : Various issues of the Stock Exchange Official Directory, Vol.2 (9) (iii), Bombay Stock Exchange, Bombay. 358 170 148 126 170 260 344 803 86 107 167 211 298 582 1770 5564 24 63 113 168 175 224 514 693 971 1292 2675 3273 6750 25302 110279 478121 270 753 1812 2614 3973 9723 32041 59583 1506 2111 2838 3230 3697 6174 8967 11784 1125 1203 1599 1552 2265 4344 6229 8593 7 7 8 8 9 14 20 22 1946 1961 1971 1975 1980 1985 1991 1995

Trading Pattern of the Indian Stock Market

Trading in Indian stock exchanges are limited to listed securities of public limited companies. They are broadly divided into two categories, namely, specified securities (forward list) and non-specified securities (cash list). Equity shares of dividend paying, growth-oriented companies with a paid-up capital of atleast Rs.50 million and a market capitalization of atleast Rs.100 million and having more than 20,000 shareholders are, normally, put in the specified group and the balance in non-specified group. Two types of transactions can be carried out on the Indian stock exchanges: (a) spot delivery transactions "for delivery and payment within the time or on the date stipulated when entering into the contract which shall not be more than 14 days following the date of the contract" : and (b) forward transactions "delivery and payment can be extended by further period of 14 days each so that the overall period does not exceed 90 days from the date of the contract". The latter is permitted only in the case of specified shares. The brokers who carry over the outstandings pay carry over charges (cantango or backwardation) which are usually determined by the rates of interest prevailing.

A member broker in an Indian stock exchange can act as an agent, buy and sell securities for his clients on a commission basis and also can act as a trader or dealer as a principal, buy and sell securities on his own account and risk, in contrast with the practice prevailing on New York and London Stock Exchanges, where a member can act as a jobber or a broker only. The nature of trading on Indian Stock Exchanges are that of age old conventional style of faceto-face trading with bids and offers being made by open outcry. However, there is a great amount of effort to modernize the Indian stock exchanges in the very recent times.

Over The Counter Exchange of India (OTCEI)

The traditional trading mechanism prevailed in the Indian stock markets gave way to many functional inefficiencies, such as, absence of liquidity, lack of transparency, unduly long settlement periods and benami transactions, which affected the small investors to a great extent. To provide improved services to investors, the country's first ringless, scripless, electronic stock exchange - OTCEI - was created in 1992 by country's premier financial institutions - Unit Trust of India, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, Industrial Development Bank of India, SBI Capital Markets, Industrial Finance Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation and its subsidiaries and CanBank Financial Services. Trading at OTCEI is done over the centres spread across the country. Securities traded on the OTCEI are classified into: Listed Securities - The shares and debentures of the companies listed on the OTC can be bought or sold at any OTC counter all over the country and they should not be listed anywhere else Permitted Securities - Certain shares and debentures listed on other exchanges and units of mutual funds are allowed to be traded Initiated debentures - Any equity holding atleast one lakh debentures of a particular scrip can offer them for trading on the OTC. OTC has a unique feature of trading compared to other traditional exchanges. That is, certificates of listed securities and initiated debentures are not traded at OTC. The original certificate will be safely with the custodian. But, a counter receipt is generated out at the counter which substitutes the share certificate and is used for all transactions. In the case of permitted securities, the system is similar to a traditional stock exchange. The difference is that the delivery and payment procedure will be completed within 14 days. Compared to the traditional Exchanges, OTC Exchange network has the following advantages: OTCEI has widely dispersed trading mechanism across the country which provides greater liquidity and lesser risk of intermediary charges. Greater transparency and accuracy of prices is obtained due to the screen-based scripless trading. Since the exact price of the transaction is shown on the computer screen, the investor gets to know the exact price at which s/he is trading. Faster settlement and transfer process compared to other exchanges. In the case of an OTC issue (new issue), the allotment procedure is completed in a month and trading commences after a month of the issue closure, whereas it takes a longer period for the same with respect to other exchanges. Thus, with the superior trading mechanism coupled with information transparency investors are gradually becoming aware of the manifold advantages of the OTCEI.

National Stock Exchange (NSE)

With the liberalization of the Indian economy, it was found inevitable to lift the Indian stock market trading system on par with the international standards. On the basis of the

recommendations of high powered Pherwani Committee, the National Stock Exchange was incorporated in 1992 by Industrial Development Bank of India, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, Industrial Finance Corporation of India, all Insurance Corporations, selected commercial banks and others. Trading at NSE can be classified under two broad categories: (a) Wholesale debt market and (b) Capital market. Wholesale debt market operations are similar to money market operations - institutions and corporate bodies enter into high value transactions in financial instruments such as government securities, treasury bills, public sector unit bonds, commercial paper, certificate of deposit, etc. There are two kinds of players in NSE: (a) trading members and (b) participants. Recognized members of NSE are called trading members who trade on behalf of themselves and their clients. Participants include trading members and large players like banks who take direct settlement responsibility. Trading at NSE takes place through a fully automated screen-based trading mechanism which adopts the principle of an order-driven market. Trading members can stay at their offices and execute the trading, since they are linked through a communication network. The prices at which the buyer and seller are willing to transact will appear on the screen. When the prices match the transaction will be completed and a confirmation slip will be printed at the office of the trading member. NSE has several advantages over the traditional trading exchanges. They are as follows: NSE brings an integrated stock market trading network across the nation. Investors can trade at the same price from anywhere in the country since inter-market operations are streamlined coupled with the countrywide access to the securities. Delays in communication, late payments and the malpractices prevailing in the traditional trading mechanism can be done away with greater operational efficiency and informational transparency in the stock market operations, with the support of total computerized network. Unless stock markets provide professionalised service, small investors and foreign investors will not be interested in capital market operations. And capital market being one of the major source of long-term finance for industrial projects, India cannot afford to damage the capital market path. In this regard NSE gains vital importance in the Indian capital market system.

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ECONOMIC PLANNING IN INDIA Preamble
Often, in the economic literature we find the terms development and growth are used interchangeably. However, there is a difference. Economic growth refers to the sustained increase in per capita or total income, while the term economic development implies sustained structural change, including all the complex effects of economic growth. In other words, growth is associated with free enterprise, where as development requires some sort of control and regulation of the forces affecting development. Thus, economic development is a process and growth is a phenomenon.

Economic planning is very critical for a nation, especially a developing country like India to take the country in the path of economic development to attain economic growth.

Why Economic Planning for India?

One of the major objective of planning in India is to increase the rate of economic development, implying that increasing the rate of capital formation by raising the levels of income, saving and investment. However, increasing the rate of capital formation in India is beset with a number of difficulties. People are poverty ridden. Their capacity to save is extremely low due to low levels of income and high propensity to consume. Therefor, the rate of investment is low which leads to capital deficiency and low productivity. Low productivity means low income and the vicious circle continues. Thus, to break this vicious economic circle, planning is inevitable for India. The market mechanism works imperfectly in developing nations due to the ignorance and unfamiliarity with it. Therefore, to improve and strengthen market mechanism planning is very vital. In India, a large portion of the economy is non-monitised; the product, factors of production, money and capital markets are not organized properly. Thus the prevailing price mechanism fails to bring about adjustments between aggregate demand and supply of goods and services. Thus, to improve the economy, market imperfections has to be removed; available resources has to be mobilized and utilized efficiently; and structural rigidities has to be overcome. These can be attained only through planning. In India, capital is scarce; and unemployment and disguised unemployment is prevalent. Thus, where capital being scarce and labour being abundant, providing useful employment opportunities to an increasing labour force is a difficult exercise. Only a centralized planning model can solve this macro problem of India. Further, in a country like India where agricultural dependence is very high, one can not ignore this segment in the process of economic development. Therefore, an economic development model has to consider a balanced approach to link both agriculture and industry and lead for a paralleled growth. Not to mention, both agriculture and industry can not develop with out adequate infrastructural facilities which only a the state can provide and this is possible only through a well carved out planning strategy. The governments role in providing infrastructure is unavoidable due to the fact that the role of private sector in infrastructural development of India is very minimal since these infrastructure projects are considered as unprofitable by the private sector. Further, India is a clear case of income disparity. Thus, it is the duty of the state to reduce the prevailing income inequalities. This is possible only through planning.

Planning History of India

The development of planning in India began prior to the first Five Year Plan of independent India, long before independence even. The idea of central directions of resources to overcome persistent poverty gradually, because one of the main policies advocated by nationalists early in the century. The Congress Party worked out a program for economic advancement during the 1920s, and 1930s and by the 1938 they formed a National Planning Committee under the chairmanship of future Prime Minister Nehru. The Committee had little time to do anything but prepare programs and reports before the Second World War which put an end to it. But it was already more than an academic exercise remote from administration. Provisional government had been elected in 1938, and the Congress Party leaders held positions of responsibility. After the war, the Interim government of the pre-independence years appointed an Advisory Planning Board. The Board produced a number of some what disconnected Plans

itself. But, more important in the long run, it recommended the appointment of a Planning Commission. The Planning Commission did not start work properly until 1950. During the first three years of independent India, the state and economy scarcely had a stable structure at all, while millions of refugees crossed the newly established borders of India and Pakistan, and while exprincely states (over 500 of them) were being merged into India or Pakistan. The Planning Commission as it now exists, was not set up until the new India had adopted its Constitution in January 1950.

Objectives of Indian Planning

The Planning Commission was set up he following Directive principles : To make an assessment of the material, capital and human resources of the country, including technical personnel, and investigate the possibilities of augmenting such of these resources as are found to be deficient in relation to the nations requirement. To formulate a plan for the most effective and balanced use of the countrys resources. Having determined the priorities, to define the stages in which the plan should be carried out, and propose the allocation of resources for the completion of each stage. To indicate the factors which are tending to retard economic development, and determine the conditions which, in view of the current social and political situation, should be established for the successful execution of the Plan. To determine the nature of the machinery which will be necessary for securing the successful implementation of each stage of Plan in all its aspects. To appraise from time to time the progress achieved in the execution of each stage of the Plan and recommend the adjustments of policy and measures that such appraisals may show to be necessary. To make such interim or auxiliary recommendations as appear to it to be appropriate either for facilitating the discharge of the duties assigned to it or on a consideration of the prevailing economic conditions, current policies, measures and development programs; or on an examination of such specific problems as may be referred to it for advice by Central or State Governments. The long-term general objectives of Indian Planning are as follows : Increasing National Income Reducing inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth Elimination of poverty Providing additional employment; and Alleviating bottlenecks in the areas of : agricultural production, manufacturing capacity for producers goods and balance of payments. Economic growth, as the primary objective has remained in focus in all Five Year Plans. Approximately, economic growth has been targeted at a rate of five per cent per annum. High priority to economic growth in Indian Plans looks very much justified in view of long period of stagnation during the British rule.

Significance, Role or Functions of Capital Market

Like the money market capital market is also very important. It plays a significant role in the national economy. A developed, dynamic and vibrant capital market can immensely contribute for speedy economic growth and development. Let us get acquainted with the important functions and role of the capital market.

Mobilization of Savings : Capital market is an important source for mobilizing idle savings from the economy. It mobilizes funds from people for further investments in the productive channels of an economy. In that sense it activate the ideal monetary resources and puts them in proper investments. Capital Formation : Capital market helps in capital formation. Capital formation is net addition to the existing stock of capital in the economy. Through mobilization of ideal resources it generates savings; the mobilized savings are made available to various segments such as agriculture, industry, etc. This helps in increasing capital formation. Provision of Investment Avenue : Capital market raises resources for longer periods of time. Thus it provides an investment avenue for people who wish to invest resources for a long period of time. It provides suitable interest rate returns also to investors. Instruments such as bonds, equities, units of mutual funds, insurance policies, etc. definitely provides diverse investment avenue for the public. Speed up Economic Growth and Development : Capital market enhances production and productivity in the national economy. As it makes funds available for long period of time, the financial requirements of business houses are met by the capital market. It helps in research and development. This helps in, increasing production and productivity in economy by generation of employment and development of infrastructure. Proper Regulation of Funds : Capital markets not only helps in fund mobilization, but it also helps in proper allocation of these resources. It can have regulation over the resources so that it can direct funds in a qualitative manner. Service Provision : As an important financial set up capital market provides various types of services. It includes long term and medium term loans to industry, underwriting services, consultancy services, export finance, etc. These services help the manufacturing sector in a large spectrum. Continuous Availability of Funds : Capital market is place where the investment avenue is continuously available for long term investment. This is a liquid market as it makes fund available on continues basis. Both buyers and seller can easily buy and sell securities as they are continuously available. Basically capital market transactions are related to the stock exchanges. Thus marketability in the capital market becomes easy. These are the important functions of the capital market.

Final Glance and Conclusion on Capital Market

The lack of an advanced and vibrant capital market can lead to underutilization of financial resources. The developed capital market also provides access to the foreign capital for domestic industry. Thus capital market definitely plays a constructive role in the over all development of an economy.

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Indian Capital Markets

Since 2003, Indian capital markets have been receiving global attention, especially from sound investors, due to the improving macroeconomic fundamentals. The presence of a great pool of skilled labour and the rapid integration with the world economy increased Indias global competitiveness. No wonder, the global ratings agencies Moodys and Fitch have awarded India with investment grade ratings, indicating comparatively lower sovereign risks. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulatory authority for Indian securities market, was established in 1992 to protect investors and improve the microstructure of capital markets. In the same year, Controller of Capital Issues (CCI) was abolished, removing its administrative controls over the pricing of new equity issues. In less than a decade later, the Indian financial markets acknowledged the use of technology (National Stock Exchange started online trading in 2000), increasing the trading volumes by many folds and leading to the emergence of new financial instruments. With this, market activity experienced a sharp surge and rapid progress was made in further strengthening and streamlining risk management, market regulation, and supervision. The securities market is divided into two interdependent segments: The primary market provides the channel for creation of funds through issuance of new securities by companies, governments, or public institutions. In the case of new stock issue, the sale is known as Initial Public Offering (IPO). The secondary market is the financial market where previously issued securities and financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, options, and futures are traded. In the recent past, the Indian securities market has seen multi-faceted growth in terms of: The products traded in the market, viz. equities and bonds issued by the government and companies, futures on benchmark indices as well as stocks, options on benchmark indices as well as stocks, and futures on interest rate products such as Notional 91-Day T-Bills, 10-Year Notional Zero Coupon Bond, and 6% Notional 10-Year Bond. The amount raised from the market, number of stock exchanges and other intermediaries, the number of listed stocks, market capitalization, trading volumes and turnover on stock exchanges, and investor population. The profiles of the investors, issuers, and intermediaries. Broad Constituents in the Indian Capital Markets Fund Raisers are companies that raise funds from domestic and foreign sources, both public and private. The following sources help companies raise funds: Fund Providers are the entities that invest in the capital markets. These can be categorized as domestic and foreign investors, institutional and retail investors. The list includes subscribers to primary market issues, investors who buy in the secondary market, traders, speculators, FIIs/ sub accounts, mutual funds, venture capital funds, NRIs, ADR/GDR investors, etc. Intermediaries are service providers in the market, including stock brokers, sub-brokers, financiers, merchant bankers, underwriters, depository participants, registrar and transfer agents, FIIs/ sub accounts, mutual Funds, venture capital funds, portfolio managers, custodians, etc. Organizations include various entities such as BSE, NSE, other regional stock exchanges, and the two depositories National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Central Securities Depository Limited (CSDL). Market Regulators include the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Department of Company Affairs (DCA).

Appellate Authority: The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) Participants in the Securities Market SAT, regulators (SEBI, RBI, DCA, DEA), depositories, stock exchanges (with equity trading, debt market segment, derivative trading), brokers, corporate brokers, sub-brokers, FIIs, portfolio managers, custodians, share transfer agents, primary dealers, merchant bankers, bankers to an issue, debenture trustees, underwriters, venture capital funds, foreign venture capital investors, mutual funds, collective investment schemes. EQUITY MARKET History of the Market With the onset of globalization and the subsequent policy reforms, significant improvements have been made in the area of securities market in India. Dematerialization of shares was one of the revolutionary steps that the government implemented. This led to faster and cheaper transactions, and increased the volumes traded by many folds. The adoption of the market-oriented economic policies and online trading facility transformed Indian equity markets from a broker-regulated market to a mass market. This boosted the sentiment of investors in and outside India and elevated the Indian equity markets to the standards of the major global equity markets. The 1990s witnessed the emergence of the securities market as a major source of finance for trade and industry. Equity markets provided the required platform for companies and start-up businesses to raise money through IPOs, VC, PE, and finance from HNIs. As a result, stock markets became a peoples market, flooded with primary issues. In the first 11 months of 2007, the new capital raised in the global public equity markets through IPOs accounted for $107 billion in 382 deals out of the total of $255 billion raised by the four BRIC countries. This was a sizeable growth from $90 billion raised in 302 deals in 2006. Today, the corporate sector prefers external sources for meeting its funding requirements rather than acquiring loans from financial institutions or banks. Derivative Markets The emergence of the market for derivative products such as futures and forwards can be traced back to the willingness of risk-averse economic agents to guard themselves against uncertainties arising out of price fluctuations in various asset classes. By their very nature, the financial markets are marked by a very high degree of volatility. Through the use of derivative products, it is possible to partially or fully transfer price risks by locking in asset prices. However, by locking in asset prices, derivative products minimize the impact of fluctuations in asset prices on the profitability and cash flow situation of risk-averse investors. This instrument is used by all sections of businesses, such as corporates, SMEs, banks, financial institutions, retail investors, etc. According to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, more than 90 percent of the global 500 corporations use derivatives for hedging risks in interest rates, foreign exchange, and equities. In the over-thecounter (OTC) markets, interest rates (78.5%), foreign exchange (11.4%), and credit form the major derivatives, whereas in the exchange-traded segment, interest rates, government debt, equity index, and stock futures form the major chunk of the derivatives.

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What are futures contracts? Futures contracts are standardized derivative instruments. The instrument has an underlying product (tangible or intangible) and is impacted by the developments witnessed in the underlying product. The quality and quantity of the underlying asset are standardized. Futures contracts are transferable in nature. Three broad categories of participantshedgers, speculators, and arbitragerstrade in the derivatives market. Hedgers face risk associated with the price of an asset. They belong to the business community dealing with the underlying asset to a future instrument on a regular basis. They use futures or options markets to reduce or eliminate this risk. Speculators have a particular mindset with regard to an asset and bet on future movements in the assets price. Futures and options contracts can give them an extra leverage due to margining system. Arbitragers are in business to take advantage of a discrepancy between prices in two different markets. For example, when they see the futures price of an asset getting out of line with the cash price, they will take offsetting positions in the two markets to lock in a profit. Important Distinctions Exchange-Traded Vs. OTC Contracts: A significant bifurcation in the instrument is whether the derivative is traded on the exchange or over the counter. Exchange-traded contracts are standardized (futures). It is easy to buy and sell contracts (to reverse positions) and no negotiation is required. The OTC market is largely a direct market between two parties who know and trust each other. Most common example for OTC is the forward contract. Forward contracts are directly negotiated, tailor-made for the needs of the parties, and are often not easily reversed. Distinction between Forward and Futures Contracts: Futures Contracts Meaning: A futures contract is a contractual agreement between two parties to buy or sell a standardized quantity and quality of asset on a specific future date on a futures exchange. Forward Contracts A forward contract is a contractual agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a future date for a predetermined mutually agreed price while entering into the contract. A forward contract is not traded on an exchange. Trading place: A futures contract is traded on the centralized trading platform of an exchange. Transparency in contract price: The contract price of a futures contract is transparent as it is available on the centralized trading screen of the exchange. Valuations of open position and margin requirement: In a futures contract, valuation of open position is calculated as per the official closing price on a daily basis and mark-to-market (MTM) margin requirement exists. Liquidity: Liquidity is the measure of frequency of trades that occur in a particular futures contract. A futures contract is more liquid as it is traded on the exchange. Counterparty default risk: In futures contracts, the exchange clearinghouse In forward contracts, counterparty risk is high due to the customized nature of the In a forward contract, valuation of open position is not calculated on a daily basis and there is no requirement of MTM on daily basis since the settlement of contract is only on the maturity date of the contract. A forward contract is less liquid due to its customized nature. The contract price of a forward contract is not transparent, as it is not publicly disclosed. A forward contract is traded in an OTC market.

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provides trade guarantee. Therefore, counterparty risk is almost eliminated. Regulations: A regulatory authority and the exchange regulate a futures contract. Benefits of Derivatives

transaction.

A forward contract is not regulated by any exchange.

Price Risk Management: The derivative instrument is the best way to hedge risk that arises from its underlying. Suppose, A has bought 100 shares of a real estate company with a bullish view but, unfortunately, the stock starts showing bearish trends after the subprime crisis. To avoid loss, A can sell the same quantity of futures of the script for the time period he plans to stay invested in the script. This activity is called hedging. It helps in risk minimization, profit maximization, and reaching a satisfactory risk-return trade-off, with the use of a portfolio. The major beneficiaries of the futures instrument have been mutual funds and other institutional investors. Price Discovery: The new information disseminated in the marketplace is interpreted by the market participants and immediately reflected in spot and futures prices by triggering the trading activity in one or both the markets. This process of price adjustment is often termed as price discovery and is one of the major benefits of trading in futures. Apart from this, futures help in improving efficiency of the markets. Asset Class: Derivatives, especially futures, offer an exclusive asset class for not only large investors like corporates and financial institutions but also for retail investors like high networth individuals. Equity futures offer the advantage of portfolio risk diversification for all business entities. This is due to the fact that historically it has been witnessed that there lies an inverse correlation of daily returns in equities as compared to commodities. High Financial Leverage: Futures offer a great opportunity to invest even with a small sum of money. It is an instrument that requires only the margin on a contract to be paid in order to commence trading. This is also called leverage buying/selling. Transparency: Futures instruments are highly transparent because the underlying product (equity scripts/index) are generally traded across the country or even traded globally. This reduces the chances of manipulation of prices of those scripts. Secondly, the regulatory authorities act as watchdogs regarding the day-to-day activities taking place in the securities markets, taking care of the illegal transactions. Predictable Pricing: Futures trading is useful for the genuine investor class because they get an idea of the price at which a stock or index would be available at a future point of time. EXCHANGE PLATFORM Domestic Exchanges Indian equities are traded on two major exchanges: Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (BSE) and National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE). Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) BSE is the oldest stock exchange in Asia. The extensiveness of the indigenous equity broking industry in India led to the formation of the Native Share Brokers Association in 1875, which later became Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (BSE). BSE is widely recognized due to its pivotal and pre-eminent role in the development of the Indian capital market. In 1995, the trading system transformed from open outcry system to an online screen-based order-driven trading system. The exchange opened up for foreign ownership (foreign institutional investment). Allowed Indian companies to raise capital from abroad through ADRs and GDRs. Expanded the product range (equities/derivatives/debt). Introduced the book building process and brought in transparency in IPO issuance. T+2 settlement cycle (payments and settlements). Depositories for share custody (dematerialization of shares). Internet trading (e-broking). Governance of the stock exchanges (demutualization and corporatization of stock exchanges) and internet trading (e-broking). BSE has a nation-wide reach with a presence in more than 450 cities and towns of India. BSE has always been at par with the international standards. It is the first exchange in India and the second in the world to obtain

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an ISO 9001:2000 certification. It is also the first exchange in the country and second in the world to receive Information Security Management System Standard BS 7799-2-2002 certification for its BSE Online Trading System (BOLT). Benchmark Indices futures: BSE 30 SENSEX, BSE 100, BSE TECK, BSE Oil and Gas, BSE Metal, BSE FMCG http://www.bseindia.com/ National Stock Exchange (NSE) NSE was recognised as a stock exchange in April 1993 under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act. It commenced its operations in Wholesale Debt Market in June 1994. The capital market segment commenced its operations in November 1994, whereas the derivative segment started in 2000. NSE introduced a fully automated trading system called NEAT (National Exchange for Automated Trading) that operated on a strict price/time priority. This system enabled efficient trade and the ease with which trade was done. NEAT had lent considerable depth in the market by enabling large number of members all over the country to trade simultaneously, narrowing the spreads significantly. The derivatives trading on NSE commenced with S&P CNX Nifty Index futures on June 12, 2000. The futures contract on NSE is based on S&P CNX Nifty Index. The Futures and Options trading system of NSE, called NEATF&O trading system, provides a fully automated screen based trading for S&P CNX Nifty futures on a nationwide basis and an online monitoring and surveillance mechanism. It supports an order-driven market and provides complete transparency of trading operations. Benchmark Indices futures: Nifty Midcap 50 futures, S&P CNX Nifty futures, CNX Nifty Junior, CNX IT futures, CNX 100 futures, Bank Nifty futures http://nseindia.com/ International Exchanges Due to increasing globalization, the development at macro and micro levels in international markets is compulsorily incorporated in the performance of domestic indices and individual stock performance, directly or indirectly. Therefore, it is important to keep track of international financial markets for better perspective and intelligent investment. NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) NASDAQ is an American stock exchange. It is an electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the US. It was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). However, it is owned and operated by NASDAQ OMX group, the stock of which was listed on its own stock exchange in 2002. The exchange is monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulatory authority for the securities markets in the United States. NASDAQ is the world leader in the arena of securities trading, with 3,900 companies (NASDAQ site) being listed. There are four major indices of NASDAQ that are followed closely by the investor class, internationally. NASDAQ Composite: It is an index of common stocks and similar stocks like ADRs, tracking stocks and limited partnership interests listed on the NASDAQ stock market. It is estimated that the total components count of the Index is over 3,000 stocks and it includes stocks of US and non-US companies, which makes it an international index. It is highly followed in the US and is an indicator of performance of technology and growth companies. When launched in 1971, the index was set at a base value of 100 points. Over the years, it saw new highs; for instance, in July 1995, it closed above 1,000-mark and in March 2000, it touched 5048.62. The decline from this peak signalled the end of the dotcom stock market bubble. The Index never reached the 2000 level afterwards. It was trading at 1316.12 on November 20, 2008. NASDAQ 100: It is an Index of 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies listed on NASDAQ. The component companies weight in the index is based on their market capitalization, with certain rules controlling the influence of the largest components. The index doesnt contain financial companies. However, it includes the companies that are incorporated outside the US. Both these aspects of NASDAQ 100 differentiate it from S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). The index includes companies from the industrial, technology, biotechnology, healthcare, transportation, media, and service sectors. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA): DJIA was formed for the first time by Charles Henry Dow. He formed a financial company with Edward Jones in 1882, called Dow Jones & Co. In 1884, they formed the first index including 11 stocks (two manufacturing companies and nine railroad companies). Today, the index contains 30 blue-chip industrial companies operating in America. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is calculated through the simple average, i.e., the sum of the prices of all stocks divided by the number of stocks (30).

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S&P 500: The S&P 500 Index was introduced by McGraw Hill's Standard and Poor's unit in 1957 to further improve tracking of American stock market performance. In 1968, the US Department of Commerce added S&P 500 to its index of leading economic indicators. S&P 500 is intended to be consisting of the 500 largest publically-traded companies in the US by market capitalization (in contrast to the FORTUNE 500, which is the largest 500 companies in terms of sales revenue). The S&P 500 Index comprises about three-fourths of total American capitalization. http://www.nasdaq.com/ LSE (London Stock Exchange) The London Stock Exchange was founded in 1801 with British as well as overseas companies listed on the exchange. The LSE has four core areas: Equity markets: The LSE enables companies from around the world to raise capital. There are four primary markets; Main Market, Alternative Investment Market (AIM), Professional Securities Market (PSM), and Specialist Fund Market (SFM). Trading services: Highly active market for trading in a range of securities, including UK and international equities, debt, covered warrants, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), exchange-traded commodities (ETCs), REITs, fixed interest, contracts for difference (CFDs), and depositary receipts. Market data information: The LSE provides real-time prices, news, and other financial information to the global financial community. Derivatives: A major contributor to derivatives business is EDX London, created in 2003 to bring the cash, equity, and derivatives markets closer together. It combines the strength and liquidity of LSE and equity derivatives technology of NASDAQ OMX group. The exchange offers a range of products in derivatives segment with underlying from Russian, Nordic, and Baltic markets. Internationally, it offers products with underlying from Kazakhstan, India, Egypt, and Korea. http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/ Frankfurt Stock Exchange It is situated in Frankfurt, Germany. It is owned and operated by Deutsche Brse. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange has over 90 percent of turnover in the German market and a big share in the European market. The exchange has a few well-known trading indices of the exchange, such as DAX, DAXplus, CDAX, DivDAX, LDAX, MDAX, SDAX, TecDAX, VDAX, and EuroStoxx 50. DAX is a blue-chip stock market index consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Prices are taken from the electronic Xetra trading system of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. http://deutsche-boerse.com/ REGULATORY AUTHORITY There are four main legislations governing the securities market: The SEBI Act, 1992 establishes SEBI to protect investors and develop and regulate the securities market. The Companies Act, 1956 sets out the code of conduct for the corporate sector in relation to issue, allotment, and transfer of securities, and disclosures to be made in public issues. The Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 provides for regulation of transactions in securities through control over stock exchanges. The Depositories Act, 1996 provides for electronic maintenance and transfer of ownership of demat securities. In India, the responsibility of regulating the securities market is shared by DCA (the Department of Company Affairs), DEA (the Department of Economic Affairs), RBI (the Reserve bank of India), and SEBI (the Securities and Exchange Board of India). The DCA is now called the ministry of company affairs, which is under the ministry of finance. The ministry is primarily concerned with the administration of the Companies Act, 1956, and other allied Acts and rules & regulations framed there-under mainly for regulating the functioning of the corporate sector in accordance with the law. The ministry exercises supervision over the three professional bodies, namely Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI), which are constituted under three separate Acts of Parliament for the proper and orderly growth of professions of chartered accountants, company secretaries, and cost accountants in the country. http://www.mca.gov.in/ SEBI protects the interests of investors in securities and promotes the development of the securities market. The board helps in regulating the business of stock exchanges and any other securities market. SEBI is also responsible for registering and regulating the working of stock brokers, sub-brokers, share transfer agents,

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bankers to an issue, trustees of trust deeds, registrars to an issue, merchant bankers, underwriters, portfolio managers, investment advisers, and such other intermediaries who may be associated with securities markets in any manner. The board registers the venture capitalists and collective investments like mutual funds. SEBI helps in promoting and regulating self regulatory organizations. http://www.sebi.gov.in RBI is also known as the bankers bank. The central bank has some very important objectives and functions such as: Objectives Maintain price stability and ensure adequate flow of credit to productive sectors. Maintain public confidence in the system, protect depositors' interest, and provide cost-effective banking services to the public. Facilitate external trade and payment and promote orderly development and maintenance of the foreign exchange market in India. Give the public adequate quantity of supplies of currency notes and coins in good quality. Functions Formulate implements and monitor the monetary policy. Prescribe broad parameters of banking operations within which the country's banking and financial system functions. Manage the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. Issue new currency and coins and exchange/destroy currency and coins not fit for circulation. Perform a wide range of promotional functions to support national objectives. http://www.rbi.org.in/home.aspx The DEA is the nodal agency of the Union government to formulate and monitor the country's economic policies and programmes that have a bearing on domestic and international aspects of economic management. Apart from forming the Union Budget every year, it has other important functions like: Formulation and monitoring of macro-economic policies, including issues relating to fiscal policy and public finance, inflation, public debt management, and the functioning of capital market, including stock exchanges. In this context, it looks at ways and means to raise internal resources through taxation, market borrowings, and mobilization of small savings. Monitoring and raising of external resources through multilateral and bilateral development assistance, sovereign borrowings abroad, foreign investments, and monitoring foreign exchange resources, including balance of payments. Production of bank notes and coins of various denominations, postal stationery, postal stamps, cadre management, career planning, and training of the Indian Economic Service (IES).

Commodities Market
What is a market? A market is conventionally defined as a place where buyers and sellers meet to exchange goods or services for a consideration. This consideration is usually money. In an Information Technology-enabled environment, buyers and sellers from different locations can transact business in an electronic marketplace. Hence the physical marketplace is not necessary for the exchange of goods or services for a consideration. Electronic trading and settlement of transactions has created a revolution in global financial and commodity markets. What is a commodity? A commodity is a product that has commercial value, which can be produced, bought, sold, and consumed. Commodities are basically the products of the primary sector of an economy. The primary sector of an economy is concerned with agriculture and extraction of raw materials such as metals, energy (crude oil, natural gas), etc., which serve as basic inputs for the secondary sector of the economy. To qualify as a commodity for futures trading, an article or a product has to meet some basic characteristics: The product must not have gone through any complicated manufacturing activity, except for certain basic processing such as mining, cropping, etc. In other words, the product must be in a basic, raw, unprocessed state. There are of course some exceptions to this rule. For example, metals, which are refined from metal ores, and sugar, which is processed from sugarcane. The product has to be fairly standardized, which means that there cannot be much differentiation in a product based on its quality. For example, there are different varieties of crude oil. Though these different varieties of crude oil can be treated as different commodities and traded as separate contracts, there can be a

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standardization of the commodities for futures contract based on the largest traded variety of crude oil. This would ensure a fair representation of the commodity for futures trading. This would also ensure adequate liquidity for the commodity futures being traded, thus ensuring price discovery mechanism. A major consideration while buying the product is its price. Fundamental forces of market demand and supply for the commodity determine the commodity prices. Usually, many competing sellers of the product will be there in the market. Their presence is required to ensure widespread trading activity in the physical commodity market. The product should have adequate shelf life since the delivery of a commodity through a futures contract is usually deferred to a later date (also known as expiry of the futures contract). Commodity Market: A Perspective A market where commodities are traded is referred to as a commodity market. These commodities include bullion (gold, silver), non-ferrous (base) metals (copper, zinc, nickel, lead, aluminium, tin), energy (crude oil, natural gas), agricultural commodities such as soya oil, palm oil, coffee, pepper, cashew, etc. Existence of a vibrant, active, liquid, and transparent commodity market is normally considered as a sign of development of an economy. It is therefore important to have active commodity markets functioning in a country. Markets have existed for centuries worldwide for selling and buying of goods and services. The concept of market started with agricultural products and hence it is as old as the agricultural products or the business of farming itself. Traditionally, farmers used to bring their products to a central marketplace (called mandi / bazaar) in a town/village where grain merchants/ traders would also come and buy the products and transport, distribute, and sell them to other markets. In a traditional market, agricultural products would be brought and kept in the market and the potential buyers would come and see the quality of the products and negotiate with the farmers directly on the price that they would be willing to pay and the quantity that they would like to buy. Deals were struck once mutual agreement was reached on the price and the quantity to be bought/ sold. In traditional markets, shortage of a commodity in a given season would lead to increase in price for the commodity. On the other hand, oversupply of a commodity on even a single day could result in decline in pricesometimes below the cost of production. Neither farmers nor merchants were happy with this situation since they could not predict what the prices would be on a given day or in a given season. As a result, farmers often returned from the market with their products since they failed to fetch their expected price and since there were no storage facilities available close to the marketplace. It was in this context that farmers and food grain merchants in Chicago started negotiating for future supplies of grains in exchange of cash at a mutually agreeable price. This type of agreement was acceptable to both parties since the farmer would know how much he would be paid for his products, and the dealer would know his cost of procurement in advance. This effectively started the system of forward contracts, which subsequently led to futures market too. Cash Market Cash transaction results in immediate delivery of a commodity for a particular consideration between the buyer and the seller. A marketplace that facilitates cash transaction is referred to as the cash market and the transaction price is usually referred to as the cash price. Buyers and sellers meet face to face and deals are struck. These are traditional markets. Example of a cash market is a mandi where food grains are sold in bulk. Farmers would bring their products to this market and merchants/traders would immediately purchase the products, and they settle the deal in cash and take or give delivery immediately. Cash markets thus call for immediate delivery of commodities against actual payment. Forwards and Futures Markets In this case, the agreements are normally made to receive the commodities at a later date in future for a predetermined consideration based on agreed upon terms and conditions. Forwards and Futures reduce the risks by allowing the trader to decide a price today for goods to be delivered on a particular future date. Forwards and Futures markets allow delivery at some time in the future, unlike cash markets that call for immediate delivery. These advance sales help both buyers and sellers with long-term planning. Forward contracts laid the groundwork for futures contracts. The main difference between these two contracts is the way in which they are negotiated. For forward contracts, terms like quantity, quality, delivery date, and price are discussed in person between the buyer and the seller. Each contract is thus unique and not standardized since it takes into account the needs of a particular seller and a particular buyer only. On the other hand, in futures contracts, all terms (quantity, quality, and delivery date) are standardized. The transaction price is discovered through the interaction of supply and demand in a centralized marketplace or exchange.

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Forward contracts help in arranging long-term transactions between buyers and sellers but could not deal with the financial (credit) risk that occurred with unforeseen price changes resulting from crop failures, inadequate storage or bottlenecks in transportation, factors beyond human control (floods, natural calamities, etc.), or other economic factors that may result in unexpected changes, and hence counterparty default risks for parties involved. This, in turn, led to the development of futures market. As mentioned above, since futures are standardized contracts that are traded through an exchange, they can be used to minimize price risk by means of hedging techniques. Since the exchange standardizes the quality and quantity parameters and offers complete transparency by using risk management techniques (such as margining system with mark-to-market settlement on a real-time basis with daily settlement), the counterparty default risk has been greatly minimized. Brief History of the Development of Commodity Markets Global Scenario It is widely believed that the futures trade first started about approximately 6,000 years ago in China with rice as the commodity. Futures trade first started in Japan in the 17th century. In ancient Greece, Aristotle described the use of call options by Thales of Miletus on the capacity of olive oil presses. The first organized futures market was the Osaka Rice Exchange, in 1730. Organized trading in futures began in the US in the mid-19th century with maize contracts at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and a bit later, cotton contracts in New York. In the first few years of CBOT, weeks could go by without any transaction taking place and even the provision of a daily free lunch did not entice exchange members to actually come to the exchange! Trade took off only in 1856, when new management decided that the mere provision of a trading floor was not sufficient and invested in the establishment of grades and standards as well as a nation-wide price information system. CBOT preceded futures exchanges in Europe. In the 1840s, Chicago had become a commercial centre since it had good railroad and telegraph lines connecting it with the East. Around this same time, good agriculture technologies were developed in the area, which led to higher wheat production. Midwest farmers, therefore, used to come to Chicago to sell their wheat to dealers who, in turn, transported it all over the country. Farmers usually brought their wheat to Chicago hoping to sell it at a good price. The city had very limited storage facilities and hence, the farmers were often left at the mercy of the dealers. The situation changed for the better in 1848 when a central marketplace was opened where farmers and dealers could meet to deal in "cash" grainthat is, to exchange cash for immediate delivery of wheat. Farmers (sellers) and dealers (buyers) slowly started entering into contract for forward exchanges of grain for cash at some particular future date so that farmers could avoid taking the trouble of transporting and storing wheat (at very high costs) if the price was not acceptable. This system was suitable to farmers as well as dealers. The farmer knew how much he would be paid for his wheat, and the dealer knew his costs of procurement well in advance. Such forward contracts became common and were even used subsequently as collateral for bank loans. The contracts slowly got standardized on quantity and quality of commodities being traded. They also began to change hands before the delivery date. If the dealer decided he didn't want the wheat, he would sell the contract to someone who needed it. Also, if the farmer didn't want to deliver his wheat, he would pass on his contractual obligation to another farmer. The price of the contract would go up and down depending on what was happening in the wheat market. If the weather was bad, supply of wheat would be less and the people who had contracted to sell wheat would hold on to more valuable contracts expecting to fetch better price; if the harvest was bigger than expected, the seller's contract would become less valuable since the supply of wheat would be more. Slowly, even those individuals who had no intention of ever buying or selling wheat began trading in these contracts expecting to make some profits based on their knowledge of the situation in the market for wheat. They were called speculators. They hoped to buy (long position) contracts at low price and sell them at high price or sell (short position) the contracts in advance for high price and buy later at a low price. This is how the futures market in commodities developed in the US. The hedgers began to efficiently transfer their market risk of holding physical commodity to these speculators by trading in futures exchanges. The history of commodity markets in the US has the following landmarks: Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was established in Chicago in 1848 to bring farmers and merchants together. It started active trading in futures-type of contracts in 1865. The New York Cotton Exchange was started in 1870. Chicago Mercantile Exchange was set up in 1919. A legalized option trading was started in 1934.

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Indian Scenario History of trading in commodities in India goes back several centuries. But organized futures market in India emerged in 1875 when the Bombay Cotton Trade Association was established. The futures trading in oilseeds started in 1900 when Gujarati Vyapari Mandali (todays National Multi Commodity Exchange, Ahmedabad) was established. The futures trading in gold began in Mumbai in 1920. During the first half of the 20th century, there were many commodity futures exchanges, including the Calcutta Hessian Exchange Ltd. that was established in 1927. Those exchanges traded in jute, pepper, potatoes, sugar, turmeric, etc. However, Indias history of commodity futures market has been turbulent. Options were banned in cotton in 1939 by the Government of Bombay to curb widespread speculation. In mid-1940s, trading in forwards and futures became difficult as a result of price controls by the government. The Forward Contract Regulation Act was passed in 1952. This put in place the regulatory guidelines on forward trading. In late 1960s, the Government of India suspended forward trading in several commodities like jute, edible oil seeds, cotton, etc. due to fears of increase in commodity prices. However, the government offered to buy agricultural products at Minimum Support Price (MSP) to ensure that the farmer benefited. The government also managed storage, transportation, and distribution of agriculture products. These measures weakened the agricultural commodity markets in India. The government appointed four different committees (Shroff Committee in 1950, Dantwala Committee in 1966, Khusro Committee in 1979, and Kabra Committee in 1993) to go into the regulatory aspects of forward and futures trading in India. In 1996, the World Bank in association with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) conducted a study of Indian commodities markets. In the post-liberalization era of the Indian economy, it was the Kabra Committee and the World BankUNCTAD study that finally assessed the scope for forward and futures trading in commodities markets in India and recommended steps to revitalize futures trading. There are four national-level commodity exchanges and 22 regional commodity exchanges in India. The national-level exchanges are Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX), National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX), National Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (NMCE), and Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX). Relevance and Potential of Commodity Markets in India Majority of commodities traded on global commodity exchanges are agri-based. Commodity markets therefore are of great importance and hold a great potential in case of economies like India, where more than 65 percent of the people are dependent on agriculture. There is a huge domestic market for commodities in India since India consumes a major portion of its agricultural produce locally. Indian commodities market has an excellent growth potential and has created good opportunities for market players. India is the worlds leading producer of more than 15 agricultural commodities and is also the worlds largest consumer of edible oils and gold. It has major markets in regions of urban conglomeration (cities and towns) and nearly 7,500+ Agricultural Produce Marketing Cooperative (APMC)

mandis. To add to this, there is a network of over 27,000+ haats (rural bazaars) that are seasonal marketplaces
of various commodities. These marketplaces play host to a variety of commodities everyday. The commodity trade segment employs more than five million traders. The potential of the sector has been well identified by the Central government and the state governments and they have invested substantial resources to boost production of agricultural commodities. Many of these commodities would be traded in the futures markets as the foodprocessing industry grows at a phenomenal pace. Trends indicate that the volume in futures trading tends to be 5-7 times the size of spot trading in the country (internationally, it is much higher at 15 to 20 times). Many nationalized and private sector banks have announced plans to disburse substantial amounts to finance businesses related to commodity trading. The Government of India has initiated several measures to stimulate active trading interest in commodities. Steps like lifting the ban on futures trading in commodities, approving new exchanges, developing exchanges with modern infrastructure and systems such as online trading, and removing legal hurdles to attract more participants have increased the scope of commodities derivatives trading in India. This has boosted both the spot market and the futures market in India. The trading volumes are increasing as the list of commodities traded on national commodity exchanges also continues to expand. The volumes are likely to surge further as a result of the increased interest from the international participants in Indian commodity markets. If these international participants are allowed to participate in commodity markets (like in the case of capital markets), the growth in commodity futures can be expected to be phenomenal. It is expected that foreign institutional investors (FIIs), mutual funds, and banks may be able to participate in commodity derivatives markets in the near future. The launch of options trading in commodity exchanges is also

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expected after the amendments to the Forward Contract Regulation Act (1952). Commodity trading and commodity financing are going to be rapidly growing businesses in the coming years in India. With the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991, the commodity prices (especially international commodities such as base metals and energy) have been subject to price volatility in international markets, since India is largely a net importer of such commodities. Commodity derivatives exchanges have been established with a view to minimize risks associated with such price volatility. Commodity Markets Ecosystem After studying the importance of commodity markets and trading in commodity futures, it is essential to understand the different components of the commodity markets ecosystem. The commodity markets ecosystem includes the following components: Buyers/Sellers or Consumers/Producers: Farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, farmers co-operatives, APMC mandis, traders, state civil supplies corporations, importers, exporters, merchandisers, oil refining companies, oil producing companies, etc. Logistics Companies: Storage and transport companies/operators, quality testing and certifying companies, valuers, etc. Markets and Exchanges: Spot markets (mandis, bazaars, etc.) and commodity exchanges (national level and regional level) Support agencies: Depositories/de-materializing agencies, central and state warehousing corporations, and private sector warehousing companies Lending Agencies: Banks, financial institutions The users are the producers and consumers of different commodities. They have exposure to the physical commodities markets, exposing themselves to price risk. In turn, they depend on logistics companies for transportation of commodities, warehouses for storage, and quality testing and certification agencies for assessment and evaluation of commodity quality standards. Commodity derivatives exchanges provide a platform for hedging against price risk for these users. Benefits of Trading in Commodity Derivatives Trading in futures provides two important functions of price discovery and price risk management. It is useful to all the segments of the economy, particularly to all the constituents of the commodity market ecosystem. It is important to know how resorting to commodity trading benefits the constituents. Benefits to Investors, Producers, Consumers, Manufacturers: Price risk management: All participants in the commodity markets ecosystem across the value chain of different commodities are exposed to price risk. These participants buy and sell commodities and the time lag between subsequent transactions result in exposure to price risk. Commodity derivatives markets enable these participants to avoid price risk by utilizing hedging techniques. Price discovery: This is the mechanism by which a fair value price is determined by the large number of participants in the commodities derivatives markets. This is the result of automation and electronic trading systems established on the commodities derivatives exchanges. High financial leverage: This is possible in commodity markets. For example, trading in gold calls for only 4% initial margin. Thus, if one gold futures contract (each gold futures contract lot size is 1 kg) is valued at Rs 900,000, the investor is expected to deposit an initial margin of only Rs 36,000 to be able to trade. If the price of gold goes up by even 2%, the investor would make a profit of Rs 18,000 on a deposit of Rs 36,000 before the expiry of the contract. This is the benefit of leveraged trading transactions. With futures contracts, the investor trades in the expectation of the price at a later date. This is possible with a margin deposit, which is usually between 5% and 10% of the value of the commodity. Correspondingly, the margins required for equity futures contracts are higher, due to higher volatility in equity markets as compared to commodities futures contracts. The reason for higher volatility in equity markets (especially in India) as compared to commodities derivatives transactions is due to the fact that delivery is possible in commodity derivatives transactions. Commodities as an asset class for diversification of portfolio risk: Commodities have historically an inverse correlation of daily returns as compared to equities. The skewness of daily returns favours commodities, thereby indicating that in a given time period commodities have a greater probability of providing positive returns as compared to equities. Another aspect to be noted is that the Sharpe ratio of a portfolio consisting of different asset classes is higher in the case of a portfolio consisting of commodities as well as equities. Even with a marginal distribution of funds in a portfolio to include commodities, the Sharpe ratio is greatly enhanced, thereby indicating a decrease in risk.

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Commodity derivatives markets are extremely transparent in the sense that the manipulation of prices of a commodity is extremely difficult due to globalization of economies, thereby providing for prices benchmarked across different countries and continents. For example, gold, silver, crude oil, etc. are international commodities, whose prices in India are indicative of the global situation. An option for high networth investors: With the rapid spread of derivatives trading in commodities, the commodities route too has become an option for high networth investors. Useful to the producer: Commodity trade is useful to the producer because he can get an idea of the price likely to prevail on a future date and therefore can decide between various competing commodities, the best that suits him. Farmers, for instance, can get assured prices, thereby enabling them to decide on the crop that they want to grow. Since there is transparency in prices, the farmer can decide when and where to sell, so as to maximize his profits. Useful for the consumer: Commodity trade is useful for the consumer because he gets an idea of the price at which the commodity would be available at a future point of time. He can do proper costing/financial planning and also cover his purchases by making forward contracts. Predictable pricing and transparency is an added advantage. Corporate entities can benefit by hedging their risks if they are using some of the commodities as their raw materials. They can hedge the risk even if the commodity traded does not meet their requirements of exact quality/technical specifications. Useful to exporters: Futures trading is very useful to the exporters as it provides an advance indication of the price likely to prevail and thereby help the exporter in quoting a realistic price and thereby secure export contract in a competitive market. Improved product quality: Since the contracts for commodities are standardized, it becomes essential for the producers/sellers to ensure that the quality of the commodity is as specified in the contract. The advent of commodities futures markets has also enabled defining quality standards of different commodities. Credit accessibility: Buyers and sellers can avail of the bank finances for trading in commodities. Nationalized banks and private sector banks have come forward to offer credit facilities for commodity trading. Benefits to Indian Economy As the constituents of the commodity market ecosystem get benefited, the Indian economy is also benefited. Growth in the organized commodity markets and their constituents implies that there would be tremendous advantages and benefits accrued to the Indian economy in terms of business generation and growth in employment opportunities. As India imports bulk of raw material (especially in base metals and energy), there is scope for minimizing price risk for international commodities. With the consumption of commodities increasing rapidly, especially in developing countries such as China and India, the prices of commodities are volatile, emphasizing the need for organized commodity derivatives exchanges.

Currencies Market
Introduction Currency Futures is the latest product introduced in Indian securities markets. It will lead to further maturity and deepening of the financial markets in India. Worldwide, trading in currency futures is a huge market and, given the rapid growth of economy and finance in India, it is poised to assume a significant role in the growth of Indian securities markets. The dawn of currency futures is perhaps a momentous development in the foreign exchange market of India. It represents a massive stride ahead in the continuing globalization of the country's financial markets. The currency derivatives segment will enable importers, exporters, investors, corporations, and banks to hedge their currency risks at low transaction costs and with greater transparency. Understanding the meaning of foreign exchange is important to know more about currency futures market. Foreign exchange refers to money denominated in the currency of another nation or a group of nations. Any person who exchanges money denominated in his ownnations currency for money denominated in anothernations currency acquires foreign exchange. This holds true whether the amountof the transaction is equal to a few rupees or to billions of rupees. A foreign exchange transaction is a shift of funds or short-term financial claims from one country and currency to another. Thus, within India, any money denominated in any currency other than the Indian rupee (INR) is, broadly speaking, foreign exchange. Foreign exchange can be cash, bank deposit, or a short-term negotiable financial claim denominated in a currency other than INR. Almost every nation has its own national currency or monetary unit used for making and receiving payments within its own borders. But foreign currencies are usually needed for payments across national borders. Thus, in

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any nation whose residents conduct business abroad or engage in financial transactions with persons in other countries, there must be a mechanism for providing access to foreign currencies, so that payments can be made in a form acceptable to foreigners. In other words, there is need for foreign exchange transactions: exchanges of one currency for another. For all such transactions there is an exchange rate. The exchange rate is a price: the number of units of one nations currency that must be surrendered in order to acquire one unit of another nations currency. There are scores of exchange rates for INR and other currencies, say the US dollar. In the spot market, there is an exchange rate for every other national currency traded in that market. A market price is determined by the interaction of buyers and sellers in that market, and a market exchange rate between two currencies is determined by the interaction of the official and private participants in the foreign exchange market. The market participation is made up of individuals, non-financial firms, banks, official bodies, and other private institutions from all over the world that are buying and selling currencies at that particular time. What Is Foreign Exchange? Foreign exchange refers to money denominated in the currency of another nation or a group of nations. Any person who exchanges money denominated in his ownnations currency for money denominated in anothernations currency acquires foreign exchange. This holds true whether the amountof the transaction is equal to a few rupees or to billions of rupees; whether the person involvedis a tourist cashing a travellers cheque in a restaurant abroad or an investor exchanging hundreds of millions of rupees for the acquisition of a foreign company; and whether the form of moneybeing acquired is foreign currency notes, foreign currency-denominated bank deposits, or other short-term claims denominated in foreign currency. A foreign exchange transaction is still a shift of funds or short-term financial claims from one country and currency to another. Thus, within India, any money denominated in any currency other than the Indian rupee (INR) is, broadly speaking, foreign exchange. Foreign exchange can be cash, funds available on credit cards and debit cards, travellers cheques, bank deposits, or other short-term claims. It is still foreign exchange if it is a short-term negotiable financial claim denominated in a currency other than INR. Why Do You Need Foreign Exchange? Almost every nation has its own national currency or monetary unitits rupee, its dollar, its pesoused for making and receiving payments within its own borders. But foreign currencies are usually needed for payments across national borders. Thus, in any nation whose residents conduct business abroad or engage in financial transactions with persons in other countries, there must be a mechanism for providing access to foreign currencies, so that payments can be made in a form acceptable to foreigners. In other words, there is need for foreign exchange transactionsexchanges of one currency for another. Role of the Exchange Rate The exchange rate is a pricethe number of units of one nations currency that must be surrendered in order to acquire one unit of another nations currency. There are scores of exchange rates for INR and other currencies, say the US dollar. In the spot market, there is an exchange rate for every other national currency traded in that market, as well as for various composite currencies or constructed monetary units such as the euro or the International Monetary Funds Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). There are also various trade-weighted or effective rates designed to show a currencys movements against an average of various other currencies (for example, the US dollar index, which is a weighted index against worlds major currencies like euro, pound sterling, yen, and the Canadian dollar). Quite apart from the spot rates, there are additional exchange rates for other delivery dates in the forward markets. A market price is determined by the interaction of buyers and sellers in that market, and a market exchange rate between two currencies is determined by the interaction of the official and private participants in the foreign exchange market. For a currency with an exchange rate that is fixed, or set by the monetary authorities, the central bank or another official body is a key participant in the market, standing ready to buy or sell the currency as necessary to maintain the authorized pegged rate or range. But in countries like the United States, which follows a complete free floating regime, the authorities do not intervene in the foreign exchange market on a continuous basis to influence the exchange rate. The market participation is made up of individuals, nonfinancial firms, banks, official bodies, and other private institutions from all over the world that are buying and selling US dollars at that particular time. The participants in the foreign exchange market are thus a heterogeneous group. The various investors, hedgers, and speculators may be focused on any time period, from a few minutes to several years. But, whatever is the

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constitution of participants, and whether their motive is investing, hedging, speculating, arbitraging, paying for imports, or seeking to influence the rate, they are all part of the aggregate demand for and supply of the currencies involved, and they all play a role in determining the market price at that instant. Given the diverse views, interests, and time frames of the participants, predicting the future course of exchange rates is a particularly complex and uncertain business. At the same time, since the exchange rate influences such a vast array of participants and business decisions, it is a pervasive and singularly important price in an open economy, influencing consumer prices, investment decisions, interest rates, economic growth, the location of industry, and much else. The role of the foreign exchange market in the determination of that price is critically important. Its a 24-Hour Market During the past quarter century, the concept of a 24-hour market has become a reality. Somewhere on the planet, financial centres are open for business, and banks and other institutions are trading the dollar and other currencies every hour of the day and night, except for possible minor gaps on weekends. In financial centres around the world, business hours overlap; as some centres close, others open and begin to trade. The foreign exchange market follows the sun around the earth. Business is heavy when both the US markets and the major European markets are openthat is, when it is morning in New York and afternoon in London. In the New York market, nearly two-thirds of the days activity typically takes place in the morning hours. Activity normally becomes very slow in New York in the mid- to late afternoon, after European markets have closed and before the Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore markets have opened. Given this uneven flow of business around the clock, market participants often will respond less aggressively to an exchange rate development that occurs at a relatively inactive time of day, and will wait to see whether the development is confirmed when the major markets open. Some institutions pay little attention to developments in less active markets. Nonetheless, the 24-hour market does provide a continuous real-time market assessment of the ebb and flow of influences and attitudes with respect to the traded currencies, and an opportunity for a quick judgment of unexpected events. With many traders carrying pocket monitors, it has become relatively easy to stay in touch with market developments at all times. International Markets Are Made Up of an International Network of Dealers The market consists of a limited number of major dealer institutions that are particularly active in foreign exchange, trading with customers and (more often) with each other. Most of these institutions, but not all, are commercial banks and investment banks. These institutions are geographically dispersed, located in numerous financial centres around the world. Wherever they are located, these institutions are in close communication with each other; linked to each other through telephones, computers, and other electronic means. Each nations market has its own infrastructure. For foreign exchange market operations as well as for other matters, each country enforces its own laws, banking regulations, accounting rules, and tax code, and, as noted above, it operates its own payment and settlement systems. Thus, even in a global foreign exchange market with currencies traded on essentially the same terms simultaneously in many financial centres, there are different national financial systems and infrastructures through which transactions are executed, and within which currencies are held. With access to all of the foreign exchange markets generally open to participants from all countries, and with vast amounts of market information transmitted simultaneously and almost instantly to dealers throughout the world, there is an enormous amount of cross-border foreign exchange trading among dealers as well as between dealers and their customers. At any moment, the exchange rates of major currencies tend to be virtually identical in all of the financial centres where there is active trading. Rarely are there such substantial price differences among major centres as to provide major opportunities for arbitrage. In pricing, the various financial centres that are open for business and active at any one time are effectively integrated into a single market. The Markets Most Widely Traded Currency Is the Dollar The dollar is by far the most widely traded currency. In part, the widespread use of the dollar reflects its substantial international role as investment currency in many capital markets, reserve currency held by many central banks, transaction currency in many international commodity markets, invoice currency in many contracts, and intervention currency employed by monetary authorities in market operations to influence their own exchange rates. In addition, the widespread trading of the dollar reflects its use as a vehicle currency in foreign exchange transactions, a use that reinforces, and is reinforced by, its international role in trade and finance. For most pairs of currencies, the market practice is to trade each of the two currencies against a common third currency

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as a vehicle, rather than to trade the two currencies directly against each other. The vehicle currency used most often is the dollar, although very recently euro also has become an important vehicle. Thus, a trader wanting to shift funds from one currency to another, say from INR to Philippine pesos, will probably sell INR for US dollars and then sell the US dollars for pesos. Although this approach results in two transactions rather than one, it may be the preferred way, since the dollar/INR market, and the dollar/Philippine peso market are much more active and liquid and have much better information than a bilateral market for the two currencies directly against each other. By using the dollar or some other currency as a vehicle, banks and other foreign exchange market participants can limit more of their working balances to the vehicle currency, rather than holding and managing many currencies, and can concentrate their research and information sources on the vehicle. Use of a vehicle currency greatly reduces the number of exchange rates that must be dealt with in a multilateral system. In a system of 10 currencies, if one currency is selected as vehicle currency and used for all transactions, there would be a total of ninecurrency pairs or exchange rates to be dealt with (i.e., one exchange rate for the vehicle currency against each of the others), whereas if no vehicle currency were used, there would be 45exchange rates to be dealt with. In a system of 100 currencies with no vehicle currencies, potentially there would be 4,950 currency pairs or exchange rates [the formula is: n(n-1)/2]. Thus, using a vehicle currency can yield the advantages of fewer, larger, and more liquid markets with fewer currency balances, reduced informational needs, and simpler operations. The US dollar took on a major vehicle currency role with the introduction of the Bretton Woods par value system, in which most nations met their IMF exchange rate obligations by buying and selling US dollars to maintain a par value relationship for their own currency against the US dollar. The dollar was a convenient vehicle because of its central role in the exchange rate system and its widespread use as a reserve currency. The dollars vehicle currency role was also due to the presence of large and liquid dollar money and other financial markets, and, in time, the euro-dollar markets, where the dollars needed for (or resulting from) foreign exchange transactions could conveniently be borrowed (or placed). Other Major Currencies The Euro The euro was designed to become the premier currency in trading by simply being quoted in American terms. Like the US dollar, the euro has a strong international presence and over the years has emerged as a premier currency, second only to the US dollar. The Japanese Yen The Japanese yen is the third most traded currency in the world. It has a much smaller international presence than the US dollar or the euro. The yen is very liquid around the world, practically around the clock. The British Pound Until the end of World War II, the pound was the currency of reference. The nickname cable is derived from the telegrams used to update the GBP/USD rates across the Atlantic. The currency is heavily traded against the euro and the US dollar, but it has a spotty presence against other currencies. The two-year bout with the Exchange Rate Mechanism, between 1990 and 1992, had a soothing effect on the British pound, as it generally had to follow the Deutsche mark's fluctuations, but the crisis conditions that precipitated the pound's withdrawal from the ERM had a psychological effect on the currency. The Swiss Franc The Swiss franc is the only currency of a major European country that belongs neither to the European Monetary Union nor to the G-7 countries. Although the Swiss economy is relatively small, the Swiss franc is one of the major currencies, closely resembling the strength and quality of the Swiss economy and finance. Switzerland has a very close economic relationship with Germany, and thus to the euro zone. Typically, it is believed that the Swiss franc is a stable currency. Actually, from a foreign exchange point of view, the Swiss franc closely resembles the patterns of the euro, but lacks its liquidity.

Fixed Income Market

In most of the countries, the debt market is more popular than the equity market. This is due to the sophisticated bond instruments that have return-reaping assets as their underlying. In the US, for instance, the corporate bonds (like mortgage bonds) became popular in the 1980s. However, in India, equity markets are more popular than the debt markets due to the dominance of the government securities in the debt markets. Moreover, the government is borrowing at a pre-announced coupon rate targeting a captive group of investors, such as banks. This, coupled with the automatic monetization of fiscal deficit, prevented the emergence of a deep and vibrant government securities market.

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The bond markets exhibit a much lower volatility than equities, and all bonds are priced based on the same macroeconomic information. The bond market liquidity is normally much higher than the stock market liquidity in most of the countries. The performance of the market for debt is directly related to the interest rate movement as it is reflected in the yields of government bonds, corporate debentures, MIBOR-related commercial papers, and non-convertible debentures. Concepts The debt market is a market where fixed income securities issued by the Central and state governments, municipal corporations, government bodies, and commercial entities like financial institutions, banks, public sector units, and public limited companies. Therefore, it is also called fixed income market. For a developing economy like India, debt markets are crucial sources of capital funds. The debt market in India is amongst the largest in Asia. It includes government securities, public sector undertakings, other government bodies, financial institutions, banks, and companies. Risks associated with Debt Securities The debt market instrument is not entirely risk free. Specifically, two main types of risks are involved, i.e., default risk and the interest rate risk. Default Risk/Credit Risk arises when an issuer of a bond defaults on the interest or principal obligation. Interest Rate Risk can be defined as the risk emerging from an adverse change in the interest rate prevalent in the market, which would affect the yield on the existing instruments. For instance, an upswing in the prevailing interest rate may lead to a situation where the investors' money is locked at lower rates. If they had waited and invested in the changed interest rate scenario, they would have earned more. Other risks associated with trading in debt securities are more generic in nature, such as: Counter Party Risk refers to the failure or inability of the opposite party in the contract to deliver either the promised security or the sale value at the time of settlement. Price Risk refers to the possibility of not being able to receive the expected price on any order due to an adverse movement in the prices. Indian Debt Market The Indian debt market is composed of government bonds and corporate bonds. However, the Central government bonds are predominant and they form most liquid component of the bond market. National Stock Exchange (NSE) introduced Interest Rate Derivatives. MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) is also planning to launch the same. The trading platforms for government securities are the Negotiated Dealing System and the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment of NSE and BSE. In the negotiated market, the trades are normally decided by the seller and the buyer, and reported to the exchange through the broker, whereas the WDM trading system, known as NEAT (National Exchange for Automated Trading), is a fully automated screen-based trading system, which enables members across the country to trade simultaneously with enormous ease and efficiency. The instruments traded can be classified into the following segments based on the characteristics of the identity of the issuer of these securities: Market Segment Government Securities Issuer Central Government State Governments Public Sector Bonds Government Agencies / Statutory Bodies Public Sector Units Private Sector Bonds Corporates Debentures, Bonds, Commercial Paper, Floating Rate Bonds, Zero Coupon Bonds, Inter-Corporate Deposits Banks Certificates of Deposits, Debentures, Bonds PSU Bonds, Debentures, Commercial Paper Instruments Zero Coupon Bonds, Coupon Bearing Bonds, Treasury Bills, STRIPS Coupon Bearing Bonds Govt. Guaranteed Bonds, Debentures

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Financial Institutions Price Determination in Debt Markets

Certificates of Deposits, Bonds

The price of a bond in the markets is determined by the forces of demand and supply, as is the case in any market. The price of a bond also depends on the changes in: Economic conditions General money market conditions, including the state of money supply in the economy Interest rates prevalent in the market and the rates of new issues Future interest rate expectations Credit quality of the issuer Note: There is, however, a theoretical underpinning to the determination of the price of the bond based on the measure of the yield of the security. Debt Instruments are categorized as: Government of India dated Securities (G-Secs) are 100-rupee face-value units/ debt paper issued by the Government of India in lieu of their borrowing from the market. They are referred to as SLR securities in the Indian markets as they are eligible securities for the maintenance of the SLR ratio by the banks. Corporate debt market: The corporate debt market basically contains PSU bonds and private sector bonds. The Indian primary corporate debt market is basically a private placement market with most of the corporate bonds being privately placed among the wholesale investors, which include banks, financial Institutions, mutual funds, large corporates, and other large investors. The following debt instruments are available in the corporate debt market: Non-Convertible Debentures Partly-Convertible Debentures/Fully-Convertible Debentures (convertible into Equity Shares) Secured Premium Notes Debentures with Warrants Deep Discount Bonds PSU Bonds/Tax-Free Bonds Main participants in the retail debt market include mutual funds, provident funds, pension funds, private trusts, state-level and district-level co-operative banks, housing finance companies, NBFCs and RNBCs, corporate treasuries, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), and individual investors. Interest Rate Derivatives An interest rate futures contract is "an agreement to buy or sell a package of debt instruments at a specified future date at a price that is fixed today." The price of debt securities and, therefore, interest rate futures, is inversely proportional to the prevailing interest rate. When the interest rate goes up, the price of debt securities and interest rate futures goes down, and vice versa. Some of the assets underlying interest rate futures include US Treasuries, Euro-Dollar, LIBOR Swap, and Euro-Yen futures. Tenure Interest rate futures contracts can have short-term (less than one year) and long-term (more than one year) interest bearing instruments as the underlying asset. In the US, short-term interest rate futures like 90-day TBill and 3-month Euro-Dollar time deposits are more popular. Long-term interest rate futures include the 10year Treasury note futures contract and the Treasury bond futures contract. Hedging with Interest Rate Futures Interest rate futures can be used to protect against an increase in interest rates as well as a decline in interest rates. By selling interest rate futures, also known as short hedging, an investor can protect himself against an increase in interest rates; and by buying interest rate futures, also known as long hedging, an investor can protect himself against a decline in interest rates. Thus, short, medium, and long-term interest rate risks can be managed with products based on Euro-Dollar, US Treasuries, and Swaps in Europe and the US. In India, interest rate derivatives are used for hedging in the near future. Regulatory Authority The regulators of the Indian debt market are: RBI: The Reserve Bank of India is the main regulator for the money market. It controls and regulates the G-Secs market. RBI also fulfills several other important objectives such as managing the borrowing programme for the Government of India, controlling inflation, ensuring adequate credit at reasonable costs to various sectors of the economy, managing the foreign exchange reserves of the country and ensuring a stable currency environment.

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RBI controls the issuance of new banking licences to banks. It controls the manner in which various scheduled banks raise money from depositors. Further, it controls the deployment of money through its policies on CRR, SLR, priority sector lending, export refinancing, guidelines on investment assets, etc. RBI also administers the interest rate policy. Earlier, it used to strictly control interest rates through a directed system of interest rates. Each type of lending activity was supposed to be carried out at a pre-specified interest rate. Over the years, RBI has moved slowly towards a regime of market-determined controls. SEBI: The regulator for the Indian corporate debt market is the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). SEBI controls the bond market in cases where entities, especially corporates, raise money from public through public issues. It regulates the manner in which money is raised and to ensure a fair play for the retail investor. It forces the issuer to make the retail investor aware of the risks inherent in the investment and its disclosure norms. SEBI is also a regulator for the mutual funds and regulates the entry of new mutual funds in the industry. It also regulates the instruments in which these mutual funds can invest. SEBI also regulates the investments of FIIs.

Banking
India cannot have a healthy economy without a sound and effective banking system. The banking system should be hassle free and able to meet the new challenges posed by technology and other factors, both internal and external. In the past three decades, India's banking system has earned several outstanding achievements to its credit. The most striking is its extensive reach. It is no longer confined to metropolises or cities in India. In fact, Indian banking system has reached even to the remote corners of the country. This is one of the main aspects of India's growth story. The government's regulation policy for banks has paid rich dividends with the nationalization of 14 major private banks in 1969. Banking today has become convenient and instant, with the account holder not having to wait for hours at the bank counter for getting a draft or for withdrawing money from his account. History of Banking in India The first bank in India, though conservative, was established in 1786. From 1786 till today, the journey of Indian Banking System can be segregated into three distinct phases: Early phase of Indian banks, from 1786 to 1969 Nationalization of banks and the banking sector reforms, from 1969 to 1991 New phase of Indian banking system, with the reforms after 1991 Phase 1 The first bank in India, the General Bank of India, was set up in 1786. Bank of Hindustan and Bengal Bank followed. The East India Company established Bank of Bengal (1809), Bank of Bombay (1840), and Bank of Madras (1843) as independent units and called them Presidency banks. These three banks were amalgamated in 1920 and the Imperial Bank of India, a bank of private shareholders, mostly Europeans, was established. Allahabad Bank was established, exclusively by Indians, in 1865. Punjab National Bank was set up in 1894 with headquarters in Lahore. Between 1906 and 1913, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, and Bank of Mysore were set up. The Reserve Bank of India came in 1935. During the first phase, the growth was very slow and banks also experienced periodic failures between 1913 and 1948. There were approximately 1,100 banks, mostly small. To streamline the functioning and activities of commercial banks, the Government of India came up with the Banking Companies Act, 1949, which was later changed to the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 as per amending Act of 1965 (Act No. 23 of 1965). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was vested with extensive powers for the supervision of banking in India as the Central banking authority. During those days, the general public had lesser confidence in banks. As an aftermath, deposit mobilization was slow. Moreover, the savings bank facility provided by the Postal department was comparatively safer, and funds were largely given to traders. Phase 2 The government took major initiatives in banking sector reforms after Independence. In 1955, it nationalized the Imperial Bank of India and started offering extensive banking facilities, especially in rural and semi-urban areas. The government constituted the State Bank of India to act as the principal agent of the RBI and to handle banking transactions of the Union government and state governments all over the country. Seven banks owned by the Princely states were nationalized in 1959 and they became subsidiaries of the State Bank of India. In 1969, 14 commercial banks in the country were nationalized. In the second phase of banking sector reforms, seven more banks were nationalized in 1980. With this, 80 percent of the banking sector in India came under the government ownership.

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Phase 3 This phase has introduced many more products and facilities in the banking sector as part of the reforms process. In 1991, under the chairmanship of M Narasimham, a committee was set up, which worked for the liberalization of banking practices. Now, the country is flooded with foreign banks and their ATM stations. Efforts are being put to give a satisfactory service to customers. Phone banking and net banking are introduced. The entire system became more convenient and swift. Time is given importance in all money transactions. The financial system of India has shown a great deal of resilience. It is sheltered from crises triggered by external macroeconomic shocks, which other East Asian countries often suffered. This is all due to a flexible exchange rate regime, the high foreign exchange reserve, the not-yet fully convertible capital account, and the limited foreign exchange exposure of banks and their customers. The Banking Structure in India The commercial banking structure in India consists of scheduled commercial banks and unscheduled banks. Scheduled banks constitute those banks that are included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934. As on June 30, 1999, there were 300 scheduled banks in India having a total network of 64,918 branches. The scheduled commercial banks in India comprise State Bank of India and its associates (8), nationalised banks (19), foreign banks (45), private sector banks (32), co-operative banks, and regional rural banks. Before the nationalization of Indian banks, the State Bank of India (SBI) was the only nationalized bank, which was nationalized on July 1, 1955, under the SBI Act of 1955. The nationalization of seven State Bank subsidiaries took place in 1959. After the nationalization of banks in India, the branches of the public sector banks rose to approximately 800 percent in deposits and advances took a huge jump by 11,000 percent. Nationalization Process 1955: Nationalization of State Bank of India 1959: Nationalization of SBI subsidiaries 1969: Nationalization of 14 major banks 1980: Nationalization of seven banks with deposits over Rs 200 crore Banks in India In India, banks are segregated in different groups. Each group has its own benefits and limitations in operations. Each has its own dedicated target market. A few of them work in the rural sector only while others in both rural as well as urban. Many banks are catering in cities only. Some banks are of Indian origin and some are foreign players. Banks in India can be classified into: Public Sector Banks Private Sector Banks Cooperative Banks Regional Rural Banks Foreign Banks One aspect to be noted is the increasing number of foreign banks in India. The RBI has shown certain interest to involve more foreign banks. This step has paved the way for a few more foreign banks to start business in India. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) The central bank of the country is the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It was established in April 1935 with a share capital of Rs 5 crore on the basis of the recommendations of the Hilton Young Commission. The share capital was divided into fully paid shares of Rs 100 each, which was entirely owned by private shareholders in the beginning. The government held shares of nominal value of Rs 220,000. The RBI commenced operation on April 1, 1935, under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The Act (II of 1934) provides the statutory basis of the functioning of the Bank. The Bank was constituted to meet the following requirements: Regulate the issue of currency notes Maintain reserves with a view to securing monetary stability Operate the credit and currency system of the country to its advantage Functions of the RBI The Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934 entrusts all the important functions of a central bank with the Reserve Bank of India.

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Bank of Issue: Under Section 22 of the Act, the Bank has the sole right to issue currency notes of all denominations. The distribution of one-rupee notes and coins and small coins all over the country is undertaken by the Reserve Bank as an agent of the government. Banker to the Government: The second important function of the RBI is to act as the governments banker, agent, and adviser. Bankers' Bank and Lender of the Last Resort: The RBI acts as the bankers' bank. Since commercial banks can always expect the RBI to come to their help in times of banking crisis, the RBI becomes not only the banker's bank but also the lender of the last resort. Controller of Credit: The RBI is the controller of credit, i.e., it has the power to influence the volume of credit created by banks in India. It can do so through changing the Bank rate or through open market operations. Custodian of Foreign Reserves: The RBI has the responsibility to maintain the official rate of exchange. Besides maintaining the rate of exchange of the rupee, the RBI has to act as the custodian of India's reserve of international currencies. Supervisory Functions: In addition to its traditional central banking functions, the RBI has certain nonmonetary functions of the nature of supervision of banks and promotion of sound banking in India. The Reserve Bank Act, 1934, and the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, have given the RBI wide powers of supervision and control over commercial and co-operative banks, relating to licensing and establishments, branch expansion, liquidity of their assets, management and methods of working, amalgamation, reconstruction, and liquidation. Indian Banks Association (IBA) The Indian Banks Association (IBA) was formed on September 26, 1946, with 22 members. Today, IBA has more than 156 members, such as public sector banks, private sector banks, foreign banks having offices in India, urban co-operative banks, developmental financial institutions, federations, merchant banks, mutual funds, housing finance corporations, etc. The IBA has the following functions: Promote sound and progressive banking principles and practices. Render assistance and to provide common services to members. Organize co-ordination and co-operation on procedural, legal, technical, administrative, and professional matters. Collect, classify, and circulate statistical and other information. Pool expertise towards common purposes such as cost reduction, increased efficiency, productivity, and improving systems, procedures, and banking practices. Project good public image of banking through publicity and public relations. Encourage sports and cultural activities among bank employees. Banking Activities Retail banking, dealing directly with individuals and small businesses Business banking, providing services to mid-market businesses Corporate banking, directed at large business entities Private banking, providing wealth management services to high networth individuals Investment banking, activities in the financial markets, such as "underwrite" (guarantee the sale of) stock and bond issues, trade for their own accounts, make markets, and advise corporations on capital market activities like mergers and acquisitions Merchant banking is the private equity activity of investment banks Financial services, global financial institutions that engage in multiple activities such as banking and insurance

Financial Services
The financial services domain includes three important processes of Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance. These services are offered to the various constituents of the financial markets. Financial markets can be divided into different sub-types: Capital markets that consist of stock markets (which provide financing through the issuance of shares or common stock and enable the subsequent trading thereof) and bond markets (which provide financing through the issuance of bonds and enable the subsequent trading thereof) Commodity markets that facilitate the trading of commodities Money markets that provide short-term debt financing and investment Derivatives markets (including futures markets) that provide instruments for the management of financial risk

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Insurance markets that facilitate the redistribution of various risks Foreign exchange markets that facilitate the trading of foreign exchange Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance are highly related but distinct activities that solve different problems for different sets of constituents of an organization. For the smooth and efficient management of any organization, it is very crucial to ensure that they go hand in hand. It is very important to realize that if the first (governance) is not in place, the second two (risk management and compliance) become irrelevant and probably cannot be meaningfully achieved. Governance is the responsibility of senior executive management and focuses on creating organizational transparency by defining the mechanisms an organization uses to ensure that its constituents follow established processes and policies. A proper governance strategy implements systems to monitor and record current business activity, takes steps to ensure compliance with agreed policies, and provides for corrective action in cases where the rules have been ignored or misconstrued. Risk Management is the process by which an organization sets the risk tolerance, identifies potential risks, and prioritizes the tolerance for risk, based on the organizations business objectives. Risk Management leverages internal controls to manage and mitigate risk throughout the organization. Compliance is the process that records and monitors the controlsphysical, logical, or organizationalneeded to enable compliance with legislative or industry mandates as well as internal policies.

Securities and Exchange Board of India The Securities and Exchange Board of India (frequently abbreviated SEBI) is the regulator for the securities market in India. History It was formed officially by the Government of India in 1992 with SEBI Act 1992 being passed by the Indian Parliament. SEBI is headquartered in the business district of Bandra Kurla Complex complex in Mumbai, and has Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western regional offices in New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad. Controller of Capital Issues was the regulatory authority before SEBI came into existence; it derived authority from the Capital Issues (Control) Act, 1947. Initially SEBI was a non statutory body without any statutory power. However in 1995, the SEBI was given additional statutory power by the Government of India through an amendment to the securities and Exchange Board of India Act 1992. In April, 1998 the SEBI was constituted as the regulator of capital market in India under a resolution of the Government of India. The SEBI is managed by fix members , i.e. by chairman which is nominated by central government & members ,i.e. officers of central ministry , one member from RBI & remaining two are nominated by central government . The office of SEBI is situated at Mumbai with its regional officies at Kolkata , Delhi & Chennai .. Organization structure Upendra Kumar Sinha was appointed chairman on 18 February 2011 replacing C. B. Bhave.[2] The Board comprises[3] Name Prashant Saran Rajeev Agarwal Dr. Thomas Mathew Designation Whole Time Member Whole Time Member Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance 29 Upendra Kumar Sinha Chairman

V. K. Jairath Anand Sinha Naved Masood Name C. B. Bhave M. Damodaran G. N. Bajpai D. R. Mehta S. S. Nadkarni Dr. S. A. Dave

Member Appointed Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Secretary,Ministry of Corporate Affairs From To

List of former Chairmen[4]: 18 February 2008 18 February 2011 18 February 2005 18 February 2008 20 February 2002 18 February 2005 21 February 1995 20 February 2002 17 January 1994 31 January 1995 17 January 1994 23 August 1990 12 April 1988

G. V. Ramakrishna 24 August 1990 Functions and responsibilities

SEBI has to be responsive to the needs of three groups, which constitute the market: the issuers of securities the investors the market intermediaries. SEBI has three functions rolled into one body: quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial and quasi-executive. It drafts regulations in its legislative capacity, it conducts investigation and enforcement action in its executive function and it passes rulings and orders in its judicial capacity. Though this makes it very powerful, there is an appeals process to create accountability. There is a Securities Appellate Tribunal which is a three-member tribunal and is presently headed by a former Chief Justice of a High court - Mr. Justice NK Sodhi. A second appeal lies directly to the Supreme Court. SEBI has enjoyed success as a regulator by pushing systemic reforms aggressively and successively (e.g. the quick movement towards making the markets electronic and paperless rolling settlement on T+2 basis). SEBI has been active in setting up the regulations as required under law. SEBI has also been instrumental in taking quick and effective steps in light of the global meltdown and the Satyam fiasco.[citation needed] It had[when?] increased the extent and quantity of disclosures to be made by Indian corporate promoters. More recently, in light of the global meltdown,it liberalised the takeover code to facilitate investments by removing regulatory structures. In one such move, SEBI has increased the application limit for retail investors to Rs 2 lakh, from Rs 1 lakh at present.[5] Powers For the discharge of its functions efficiently, SEBI has been invested with the necessary powers which are: to approve bylaws of stock exchanges. to require the stock exchange to amend their bylaws.

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inspect the books of accounts and call for periodical returns from recognised stock exchanges. inspect the books of accounts of a financial intermediaries. compel certain companies to list their shares in one or more stock exchanges. levy fees and other charges on the intermediaries for performing its functions. grant licence to any person for the purpose of dealing in certain areas. delegate powers exercisable by it. prosecute and judge directly the violation of certain provisions of the companies Act. SEBI Committees Technical Advisory Committee Committee for review of structure of market infrastructure institutions Members of the Advisory Committee for the SEBI Investor Protection and Education Fund Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee Primary Market Advisory Committee (PMAC) Secondary Market Advisory Committee (SMAC) Mutual Fund Advisory Committee Corporate Bonds & Securitization Advisory Committee Takeover Panel SEBI Committee on Disclosures and Accounting Standards (SCODA) High Powered Advisory Committee on consent orders and compounding of offences Derivatives Market Review Committee Committee on Infrastructure Funds National Stock Exchange of India The National Stock Exchange (NSE) (Hindi: Rashtriya hare Bzar) is a stock exchange located at Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the 16th largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization and largest in India by daily turnover and number of trades, for both equities and derivative trading.[2] NSE has a market capitalization of around US$985 billion and over 1,640 listings as of December 2011.[3] Though a number of other exchanges exist, NSE and the Bombay Stock Exchange are the two most significant stock exchanges in India, and between them are responsible for the vast majority of share transactions. The NSE's key index is the S&P CNX Nifty, known as the NSE NIFTY (National Stock Exchange Fifty), an index of fifty major stocks weighted by market capitalisation. NSE is mutually-owned by a set of leading financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries in India but its ownership and management operate as separate entities.[4] There are at least 2 foreign investors NYSE Euronext and Goldman Sachs who have taken a stake in the NSE.[5] As of 2006, the NSE VSAT terminals, 2799 in total, cover more than 1500 cities across India.[6] NSE is the third largest Stock Exchange in the world in terms of the number of trades in equities.[7] It is the second fastest growing stock exchange in the world with a recorded growth of 16.6%.[8]

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Origins The National Stock Exchange of India was promoted by leading Financial institutions at the behest of the Government of India, and was incorporated in November 1992 as a tax-paying company. In April 1993, it was recognized as a stock exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. NSE commenced operations in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment in June 1994. The Capital market (Equities) segment of the NSE commenced operations in November 1994, while operations in the Derivatives segment commenced in June 2000. Innovations NSE pioneering efforts include: Being the first national, anonymous, electronic limit order book (LOB) exchange to trade securities in India. Since the success of the NSE, existent market and new market structures have followed the "NSE" model. NSE is also the first exchange to propose an investor grievance cell and an investor protection fund a[9] Setting up the first clearing corporation "National Securities Clearing Corporation Ltd." in India. NSCCL was a landmark in providing innovation on all spot equity market (and later, derivatives market) trades in India. Co-promoting and setting up of National Securities Depository Limited, first depository in India[10] Setting up of S&P CNX Nifty. NSE pioneered commencement of Internet Trading in February 2000, which led to the wide popularization of the NSE in the broker community. Being the first exchange that, in 1996, proposed exchange traded derivatives, particularly on an equity index, in India. After four years of policy and regulatory debate and formulation, the NSE was permitted to start trading equity derivatives Being the first and the only exchange to trade GOLD ETFs (exchange traded funds) in India. NSE has also launched the NSE-CNBC-TV18 media centre in association with CNBCTV18. NSE.IT Limited, setup in 1999 , is a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India. A Vertical Specialist Enterprise, NSE.IT offers end-to-end Information Technology (IT) products, solutions and services. NSE (National Stock Exchange) was the first exchange in the world to use satellite communication technology for trading, using a client server based system called National Exchange for Automated Trading (NEAT). For all trades entered into NEAT system, there is uniform response time of less than one second. Markets Currently, NSE has the following major segments of the capital market: Equity Futures and options Retail debt market

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Wholesale debt market Currency futures Mutual fund Stocks lending and borrowing In August 2008 currency derivatives were introduced in India with the launch of Currency Futures in USD INR by NSE. Currently it has also launched currency futures in euros, pounds and yen. Interest Rate Futures were introduced for the first time in India by NSE on 31 August 2009, exactly one year after the launch of Currency Futures. NSE became the first stock exchange to get approval for interest rate futures, As recommended by SEBI-RBI committee, on 31 August 2009, a futures contract based on 7% 10 Year Government of India (Notional) was launched with quarterly maturities.[11] Hours NSE's normal trading sessions are conducted from 9:15 am India Time to 3:30 pm India Time on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and Official Holidays declared by the Exchange (or by the Government of India) in advance.This timings is not valid for currency segment of National Stock Exchange.[12] The exchange, in association with BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd.), is thinking of revising its timings from 9.00 am India Time to 5.00 pm India Time. Milestones November 1992 Incorporation April 1993 Recognition as a stock exchange May 1993 Formulation of business plan June 1994 Wholesale Debt Market segment goes live November 1994 Capital Market (Equities) segment goes live March 1995 Establishment of Investor Grievance Cell April 1995 Establishment of NSCCL, the first Clearing Corporation June 1995 Introduction of centralised insurance cover for all trading members July 1995 Establishment of Investor Protection Fund October 1995 Became largest stock exchange in the country April 1996 Commencement of clearing and settlement by NSCCL April 1996 Launch of S&P CNX Nifty June 1996 Establishment of Settlement Guarantee Fund November 1996 Setting up of National Securities Depository Limited, first depository in India, co-promoted by NSE November 1996 Best IT Usage award by Computer Society of India December 1996 Commencement of trading/settlement in dematerialised securities December 1996 Dataquest award for Top IT User December 1996 Launch of CNX Nifty Junior February 1997 Regional clearing facility goes live November 1997 Best IT Usage award by Computer Society of India May 1998 Promotion of joint venture, India Index Services & Products Limited (IISL)

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May 1998 Launch of NSE's Web-site: www.nse.co.in July 1998 Launch of NSE's Certification Programme in Financial Market August 1998 CYBER CORPORATE OF THE YEAR 1998 award yes. February 1999 Launch of Automated Lending and Borrowing Mechanism April 1999 CHIP Web Award by CHIP magazine October 1999 Setting up of NSE.IT January 2000 Launch of NSE Research Initiative February 2000 Commencement of Internet Trading June 2000 Commencement of Derivatives Trading (Index Futures) September 2000 Launch of 'Zero Coupon Yield Curve' November 2000 Launch of Broker Plaza by Dotex International, a joint venture between NSE.IT Ltd. and i-flex Solutions Ltd. December 2000 Commencement of WAP trading June 2001 Commencement of trading in Index Options July 2001 Commencement of trading in Options on Individual Securities November 2001 Commencement of trading in Futures on Individual Securities December 2001 Launch of NSE VaR for Government Securities January 2002 Launch of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) May 2002 NSE wins the Wharton-Infosys Business Transformation Award in the Organization-wide Transformation category October 2002 Launch of NSE Government Securities Index January 2003 Commencement of trading in Retail Debt Market June 2003 Launch of Interest Rate Futures August 2003 Launch of Futures & options in CNXIT Index June 2004 Launch of STP Interoperability August 2004 Launch of NSEs electronic interface for listed companies March 2005 India Innovation Award by EMPI Business School, New Delhi June 2005 Launch of Futures & options in BANK Nifty Index December 2006 'Derivative Exchange of the Year', by Asia Risk magazine January 2007 Launch of NSE CNBC TV 18 media centre March 2007 NSE, CRISIL announce launch of IndiaBondWatch.com June 2007 NSE launches derivatives on Nifty Junior & CNX 100 October 2007 NSE launches derivatives on Nifty Midcap 50 January 2008 Introduction of Mini Nifty derivative contracts on 1 January 2008 March 2008 Introduction of long term option contracts on S&P CNX Nifty Index April 2008 Launch of India VIX April 2008 Launch of Securities Lending & Borrowing Scheme August 2008 Launch of Currency Derivatives August 2009 Launch of Interest Rate Futures November 2009 Launch of Mutual Fund Service System December 2009 Commencement of settlement of corporate bonds February 2010 Launch of Currency Futures on additional currency pairs

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October 2010 Launch of 15-minute special pre-open trading session, a mechanism under which investors can bid for stocks before the market opens.[13] NSE also set up as index services firm known as India Index Services & Products Limited (IISL) and has launched several stock indices, including:[14]

S&P CNX Nifty(Standard & Poor's CRISIL NSE Index) CNX Nifty Junior CNX 100 (= S&P CNX Nifty + CNX Nifty Junior) S&P CNX 500 (= CNX 100 + 400 major players across 72 industries) CNX Midcap (introduced on 18 July 2005 replacing CNX Midcap 200)
Exchange Traded Funds on NSE NSE has a number of exchange traded funds. These are typically index funds and GOLD ETFs. Some of the popular ETF's available for trading on NSE are: Equity ETFs on NSE: Nifty Benchmark ETF (NIFTYBEES) Junior Nifty Benchmark ETF (JUNIORBEES) Bank Benchmark ETF (BANKBEES) PSU Bank Benchmark ETF (PSUBNKBEES) Shariah Benchmark ETF (SHARIABEES) S&P CNX Nifty UTI Notional Depository Receipts Scheme (UTISUNDER) KOTAK PSU Bank ETF (KOTAKPSUBK) Reliance Banking ETF (RELBANK) Quantum Index ETF (QNIFTY) KOTAK NIFTY (KOTAK NIFTY) MOSt Shares M50 ETF (M50) Infrastructure Benchmark ETF (INFRABEES) MOSt Shares M100 ETF (M100)
Stock Market of India Introduction Stock markets refer to a market place where investors can buy and sell stocks. The price at which each buying and selling transaction takes is determined by the market forces (i.e. demand and supply for a particular stock). Let us take an example for a better understanding of how market forces determine stock prices. ABC Co. Ltd. enjoys high investor confidence and there is an anticipation of an upward movement in its stock price. More and more people would want to buy this stock (i.e. high demand) and very few people will want to sell this stock at current market price (i.e. less supply). Therefore, buyers will have to bid a higher price for this stock to match the ask price from the seller which will increase the stock price of ABC Co. Ltd. On the contrary, if there are more sellers than buyers (i.e. high supply and low demand) for the stock of ABC Co. Ltd. in the market, its price will fall down. In earlier times, buyers and sellers used to assemble at stock exchanges to make a transaction but now with the dawn of IT, most of the operations are done electronically and the stock markets have become almost paperless. Now investors dont have to gather at the Exchanges, and can trade freely from their home or office over the phone or through Internet.

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History of the Indian Stock Market - The Origin One of the oldest stock markets in Asia, the Indian Stock Markets have a 200 years old history. 18th Century 1830's 1840's 1850's 1860's 1860-61 1862-63 1865 East India Company was the dominant institution and by end of the century, busuness in its loan securities gained full momentum Business on corporate stocks and shares in Bank and Cotton presses started in Bombay. Trading list by the end of 1839 got broader Recognition from banks and merchants to about half a dozen brokers Rapid development of commercial enterprise saw brokerage business attracting more people into the business The number of brokers increased to 60 The American Civil War broke out which caused a stoppage of cotton supply from United States of America; marking the beginning of the "Share Mania" in India The number of brokers increased to about 200 to 250 A disastrous slump began at the end of the American Civil War (as an example, Bank of Bombay Share which had touched Rs. 2850 could only be sold at Rs. 87)

Pre-Independance Scenario - Establishment of Different Stock Exchanges 1874 1875 1880's 1894 1880 - 90's 1908 1920 1923 1934 1936 1937 With the rapidly developing share trading business, brokers used to gather at a street (now well known as "Dalal Street") for the purpose of transacting business. "The Native Share and Stock Brokers' Association" (also known as "The Bombay Stock Exchange") was established in Bombay Development of cotton mills industry and set up of many others Establishment of "The Ahmedabad Share and Stock Brokers' Association" Sharp increase in share prices of jute industries in 1870's was followed by a boom in tea stocks and coal "The Calcutta Stock Exchange Association" was formed Madras witnessed boom and business at "The Madras Stock Exchange" was transacted with 100 brokers. When recession followed, number of brokers came down to 3 and the Exchange was closed down Establishment of the Lahore Stock Exchange Merger of the Lahoe Stock Exchange with the Punjab Stock Exchange Re-organisation and set up of the Madras Stock Exchange Limited (Pvt.) Limited led by improvement in stock market activities in South India with establishment of new textile mills and plantation companies 1940 1944 1947 Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Limited and Nagpur Stock Exchange Limited was established Establishment of "The Hyderabad Stock Exchange Limited" "Delhi Stock and Share Brokers' Association Limited" and "The Delhi Stocks and Shares Exchange Limited" were established and later on merged into "The Delhi Stock Exchange Association Limited"

Post Independance Scenario The depression witnessed after the Independance led to closure of a lot of exchanges in the country. Lahore

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Estock Exchange was closed down after the partition of India, and later on merged with the Delhi Stock Exchange. Bnagalore Stock Exchange Limited was registered in 1957 and got recognition only by 1963. Most of the other Exchanges were in a miserable state till 1957 when they applied for recognition under Securities Contracts (Regulations) Act, 1956. The Exchanges that were recognized under the Act were: Bombay Calcutta Madras Ahmedabad Delhi Hyderabad Bangalore Indore Many more stock exchanges were established during 1980's, namely: Cochin Stock Exchange (1980) Uttar Pradesh Stock Exchange Association Limited (at Kanpur, 1982) Pune Stock Exchange Limited (1982) Ludhiana Stock Exchange Association Limited (1983) Gauhati Stock Exchange Limited (1984) Kanara Stock Exchange Limited (at Mangalore, 1985) Magadh Stock Exchange Association (at Patna, 1986) Jaipur Stock Exchange Limited (1989) Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange Association Limited (1989) Saurashtra Kutch Stock Exchange Limited (at Rajkot, 1989) Vadodara Stock Exchange Limited (at Baroda, 1990) Coimbatore Stock Exchange Meerut Stock Exchange At present, there are twenty one recognized stock exchanges in India which does not include the Over The Counter Exchange of India Limited (OTCEI) and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSEIL). Government policies during 1980's also played a vital role in the development of the Indian Stock Markets. There was a sharp increase in number of Exchanges, listed companies as well as their capital, which is visible from the following table: S. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 As on 31st December No. of Stock Exchanges No. of Listed Cos. No. of Stock Issues of Listed Cos. Capital of Listed Cos. (Cr. Rs.) Market value of Capital of Listed Cos. (Cr. Rs.) Capital per Listed Cos. (4/2)(Lakh Rs.) Market Value of Capital per Listed Cos. (Lakh Rs.) (5/2) Appreciated value of Capital per Listed Cos. (Lak Rs.) 1946 1961 1971 1975 1980 1985 7 7 8 8 9 14 1991 20 6229 8967 32041 1995 22 8593 11784 59583

1125 1203 1599 1552 2265 4344 1506 2111 2838 3230 3697 6174 270 971 24 86 358 753 1812 2614 3973 9723

1292 2675 3273 6750 25302 110279 478121 63 107 170 113 167 148 168 211 126 175 298 170 224 582 260 514 1770 344 693 5564 803

Trading Pattern of the Indian Stock Market

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Indian Stock Exchanges allow trading of securities of only those public limited companies that are listed on the Exchange(s). They are divided into two categories:

Types of Transactions The flowchart below describes the types of transactions that can be carried out on the Indian stock exchanges:

Indian stock exchange allows a member broker to perform following activities: Act as an agent, Buy and sell securities for his clients and charge commission for the same, Act as a trader or dealer as a principal, Buy and sell securities on his own account and risk. Over The Counter Exchange of India (OTCEI)

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Traditionally, trading in Stock Exchanges in India followed a conventional style where people used to gather at the Exchange and bids and offers were made by open outcry. This age-old trading mechanism in the Indian stock markets used to create many functional inefficiencies. Lack of liquidity and transparency, long settlement periods and benami transactions are a few examples that adversely affected investors. In order to overcome these inefficiencies, OTCEI was incorporated in 1990 under the Companies Act 1956. OTCEI is the first screen based nationwide stock exchange in India created by Unit Trust of India, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, Industrial Development Bank of India, SBI Capital Markets, Industrial Finance Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation and its subsidiaries and CanBank Financial Services.

Advantages of OTCEI Greater liquidity and lesser risk of intermediary charges due to widely spread trading mechanism across India The screen-based scripless trading ensures transparency and accuracy of prices Faster settlement and transfer process as compared to other exchanges Shorter allotment procedure (in case of a new issue) than other exchanges National Stock Exchange In order to lift the Indian stock market trading system on par with the international standards. On the basis of the recommendations of high powered Pherwani Committee, the National Stock Exchange was incorporated in 1992 by Industrial Development Bank of India, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, Industrial Finance Corporation of India, all Insurance Corporations, selected commercial banks and others. NSE provides exposure to investors in two types of markets, namely: Wholesale debt market Capital market Wholesale Debt Market - Similar to money market operations, debt market operations involve institutional investors and corporate bodies entering into transactions of high value in financial instrumets like treasury bills, government securities, commercial papers etc. Trading at NSE Fully automated screen-based trading mechanism Strictly follows the principle of an order-driven market Trading members are linked through a communication network This network allows them to execute trade from their offices

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The prices at which the buyer and seller are willing to transact will appear on the screen When the prices match the transaction will be completed A confirmation slip will be printed at the office of the trading member Advantages of trading at NSE Integrated network for trading in stock market of India Fully automated screen based system that provides higher degree of transparency Investors can transact from any part of the country at uniform prices Greater functional efficiency supported by totally computerized network

Module :2
Stock

For "capital stock" in the sense of the fixed input of a production function, see Physical capital. For other uses, see Stock (disambiguation).

The capital stock (or simply stock) of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors. Stock is different from the property and the assets of a business which may fluctuate in quantity and value.[1] Shares The stock of a business is divided into multiple shares, the total of which must be stated at the time of business formation. Given the total amount of money invested in the business, a share has a certain declared face value, commonly known as the par value of a share. The par value is the de minimis (minimum) amount of money that a business may issue and sell shares for in many jurisdictions and it is the value represented as capital in the accounting of the business. In other jurisdictions, however, shares may not have an associated par value at all. Such stock is often called non-par stock. Shares represent a fraction of ownership in a business. A business may declare different types (classes) of shares, each having distinctive ownership rules, privileges, or share values. Ownership of shares is documented by issuance of a stock certificate. A stock certificate is a legal document that specifies the amount of shares owned by the shareholder, and other specifics of the shares, such as the par value, if any, or the class of the shares. Usage 40

Used in the plural, stocks is often used as a synonym for shares.[2] Traditionalist demands for the plural stocks to be used only when referring to stocks of more than one company are rarely heard nowadays.[citation needed] In the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, South Africa, and Australia, stock can also refer to completely different financial instruments such as government bonds or, less commonly, to all kinds of marketable securities.[3] Types of stock Stock typically takes the form of shares of either common stock or preferred stock. As a unit of ownership, common stock typically carries voting rights that can be exercised in corporate decisions. Preferred stock differs from common stock in that it typically does not carry voting rights but is legally entitled to receive a certain level of dividend payments before any dividends can be issued to other shareholders.[4][5] Convertible preferred stock is preferred stock that includes an option for the holder to convert the preferred shares into a fixed number of common shares, usually anytime after a predetermined date. Shares of such stock are called "convertible preferred shares" (or "convertible preference shares" in the UK) New equity issues may have specific legal clauses attached that differentiate them from previous issues of the issuer. Some shares of common stock may be issued without the typical voting rights, for instance, or some shares may have special rights unique to them and issued only to certain parties. Often, new issues that have not been registered with a securities governing body may be restricted from resale for certain periods of time. Preferred stock may be hybrid by having the qualities of bonds of fixed returns and common stock voting rights. They also have preference in the payment of dividends over common stock and also have been given preference at the time of liquidation over common stock. They have other features of accumulation in dividend. Stock derivatives

For more details on this topic, see equity derivative.

A stock derivative is any financial instrument which has a value that is dependent on the price of the underlying stock. Futures and options are the main types of derivatives on stocks. The underlying security may be a stock index or an individual firm's stock, e.g. single-stock futures. Stock futures are contracts where the buyer is long, i.e., takes on the obligation to buy on the contract maturity date, and the seller is short, i.e., takes on the obligation to sell. Stock index futures are generally not delivered in the usual manner, but by cash settlement. A stock option is a class of option. Specifically, a call option is the right (not obligation) to buy stock in the future at a fixed price and a put option is the right (not obligation) to sell stock in the future at a fixed price. Thus, the value of a stock option changes in reaction to the underlying stock of which it is a derivative. The most popular method of valuing stock options is the Black Scholes model.[6] Apart from call options granted to employees, most stock options are transferable.

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History During Roman times, the empire contracted out many of its services to private groups called publicani. Shares in publicani were called "socii" (for large cooperatives) and "particulae" which were analogous to today's Over-The-Counter shares of small companies. Though the records available for this time are incomplete, Edward Chancellor states in his book Devil Take the Hindmost that there is some evidence that a speculation in these shares became increasingly widespread and that perhaps the first ever speculative bubble in "stocks" occurred.[citation needed] Around 1250 in France at Toulouse, 96 shares of the Socit des Moulins du Bazacle, or Bazacle Milling Company were traded at a value that depended on the profitability of the mills the society owned.[7] The Swedish company Stora has documented a stock transfer for 1/8 of the company (or more specifically, the mountain in which the copper resource was available) as early as 1288. The earliest recognized joint-stock company in modern times was the English (later British) East India Company, one of the most famous joint-stock companies. It was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600, with the intention of favouring trade privileges in India. The Royal Charter effectively gave the newly created Honourable East India Company (HEIC) a 15-year monopoly on all trade in the East Indies.[8] The Company transformed from a commercial trading venture to one that virtually ruled India as it acquired auxiliary governmental and military functions, until its dissolution. . Soon afterwards, in 1602, the Dutch East India Company issued shares, that were made tradeable on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. An invention that enhanced the ability of joint-stock companies to attract capital from investors as they now easily could dispose their shares. The Dutch East India Company was not far behind, established in 1602.[9] The innovation of joint ownership made a great deal of Europe's economic growth possible following the Middle Ages. The technique of pooling capital to finance the building of ships, for example, made the Netherlands a maritime superpower. Before adoption of the joint-stock corporation, an expensive venture such as the building of a merchant ship could be undertaken only by governments or by very wealthy individuals or families. Economic historians find the Dutch stock market of the 17th century particularly interesting: there is clear documentation of the use of stock futures, stock options, short selling, the use of credit to purchase shares, a speculative bubble that crashed in 1695, and a change in fashion that unfolded and reverted in time with the market (in this case it was headdresses instead of hemlines). Dr. Edward Stringham also noted that the uses of practices such as short selling continued to occur during this time despite the government passing laws against it. This is unusual because it shows individual parties fulfilling contracts that were not legally enforceable and where the

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parties involved could incur a loss. Stringham argues that this shows that contracts can be created and enforced without state sanction or, in this case, in spite of laws to the contrary.[10][11] Shareholder

Stock certificate for ten shares of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company A shareholder (or stockholder) is an individual or company (including a corporation) that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. Both private and public traded companies have shareholders. Companies listed at the stock market are expected to strive to enhance shareholder value. Shareholders are granted special privileges depending on the class of stock, including the right to vote on matters such as elections to the board of directors, the right to share in distributions of the company's income, the right to purchase new shares issued by the company, and the right to a company's assets during a liquidation of the company. However, shareholder's rights to a company's assets are subordinate to the rights of the company's creditors. Shareholders are considered by some to be a partial subset of stakeholders, which may include anyone who has a direct or indirect equity interest in the business entity or someone with even a non-pecuniary interest in a non-profit organization. Thus it might be common to call volunteer contributors to an association stakeholders, even though they are not shareholders. Although directors and officers of a company are bound by fiduciary duties to act in the best interest of the shareholders, the shareholders themselves normally do not have such duties towards each other. However, in a few unusual cases, some courts have been willing to imply such a duty between shareholders. For example, in California, USA, majority shareholders of closely held corporations have a duty to not destroy the value of the shares held by minority shareholders.[12][13] The largest shareholders (in terms of percentages of companies owned) are often mutual funds, and, especially, passively managed exchange-traded funds. Application The owners of a company may want additional capital to invest in new projects within the company. They may also simply wish to reduce their holding, freeing up capital for their own private use.

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By selling shares they can sell part or all of the company to many part-owners. The purchase of one share entitles the owner of that share to literally share in the ownership of the company, a fraction of the decision-making power, and potentially a fraction of the profits, which the company may issue as dividends. In the common case of a publicly traded corporation, where there may be thousands of shareholders, it is impractical to have all of them making the daily decisions required to run a company. Thus, the shareholders will use their shares as votes in the election of members of the board of directors of the company. In a typical case, each share constitutes one vote. Corporations may, however, issue different classes of shares, which may have different voting rights. Owning the majority of the shares allows other shareholders to be out-voted effective control rests with the majority shareholder (or shareholders acting in concert). In this way the original owners of the company often still have control of the company. Shareholder rights Although ownership of 50% of shares does result in 50% ownership of a company, it does not give the shareholder the right to use a company's building, equipment, materials, or other property. This is because the company is considered a legal person, thus it owns all its assets itself. This is important in areas such as insurance, which must be in the name of the company and not the main shareholder. In most countries, boards of directors and company managers have a fiduciary responsibility to run the company in the interests of its stockholders. Nonetheless, as Martin Whitman writes:

...it can safely be stated that there does not exist any publicly traded company where management works exclusively in the best interests of OPMI [Outside Passive Minority Investor] stockholders. Instead, there are both "communities of interest" and "conflicts of interest" between stockholders (principal) and management (agent). This conflict is referred to as the principal/agent problem. It would be naive to think that any management would forego management compensation, and management entrenchment, just because some of these management privileges might be perceived as giving rise to a conflict of interest with OPMIs.[14]
Even though the board of directors runs the company, the shareholder has some impact on the company's policy, as the shareholders elect the board of directors. Each shareholder typically has a percentage of votes equal to the percentage of shares he or she owns. So as long as the shareholders agree that the management (agent) are performing poorly they can elect a new board of directors which can then hire a new management team. In practice, however, genuinely contested board elections are rare. Board candidates are usually nominated by insiders or by the board of the directors themselves, and a considerable amount of stock is held or voted by insiders. Owning shares does not mean responsibility for liabilities. If a company goes broke and has to default on loans, the shareholders are not liable in any way. However, all money obtained by converting assets into cash will be used to repay loans and other

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debts first, so that shareholders cannot receive any money unless and until creditors have been paid (often the shareholders end up with nothing).[15] Means of financing Financing a company through the sale of stock in a company is known as equity financing. Alternatively, debt financing (for example issuing bonds) can be done to avoid giving up shares of ownership of the company. Unofficial financing known as trade financing usually provides the major part of a company's working capital (dayto-day operational needs). Trading In general, the shares of a company may be transferred from shareholders to other parties by sale or other mechanisms, unless prohibited. Most jurisdictions have established laws and regulations governing such transfers, particularly if the issuer is a publicly-traded entity. The desire of stockholders to trade their shares has led to the establishment of stock exchanges, organizations which provide marketplaces for trading shares and other derivatives and financial products. Today, stock traders are usually represented by a stock broker who buys and sells shares of a wide range of companies on such exchanges. A company may list its shares on an exchange by meeting and maintaining the listing requirements of a particular stock exchange. In the United States, through the intermarket trading system, stocks listed on one exchange can often also be traded on other participating exchanges, including electronic communication networks (ECNs), such as Archipelago or Instinet.[16] Many large non-U.S companies choose to list on a U.S. exchange as well as an exchange in their home country in order to broaden their investor base. These companies must maintain a block of shares at a bank in the US, typically a certain percentage of their capital. On this basis, the holding bank establishes American depositary shares and issues an American depositary receipt (ADR) for each share a trader acquires. Likewise, many large U.S. companies list their shares at foreign exchanges to raise capital abroad. Small companies that do not qualify and cannot meet the listing requirements of the major exchanges may be traded over-the-counter (OTC) by an off-exchange mechanism in which trading occurs directly between parties. The major OTC markets in the United States are the electronic quotation systems OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) and OTC Markets Group where individual retail investors are also represented by a brokerage firm and the quotation service's requirements for a company to be listed are minimal. Shares of companies in bankruptcy proceeding are usually listed by these quotation services after the stock is delisted from an exchange. Buying There are various methods of buying and financing stocks, the most common being through a stock broker. Whether they are a full service or discount broker, they arrange the transfer of stock from a seller to a buyer. Most trades are actually done through brokers listed with a stock exchange.

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There are many different stock brokers from which to choose, such as full service brokers or discount brokers. The full service brokers usually charge more per trade, but give investment advice or more personal service; the discount brokers offer little or no investment advice but charge less for trades. Another type of broker would be a bank or credit union that may have a deal set up with either a full service or discount broker. There are other ways of buying stock besides through a broker. One way is directly from the company itself. If at least one share is owned, most companies will allow the purchase of shares directly from the company through their investor relations departments. However, the initial share of stock in the company will have to be obtained through a regular stock broker. Another way to buy stock in companies is through Direct Public Offerings which are usually sold by the company itself. A direct public offering is an initial public offering in which the stock is purchased directly from the company, usually without the aid of brokers. When it comes to financing a purchase of stocks there are two ways: purchasing stock with money that is currently in the buyer's ownership, or by buying stock on margin. Buying stock on margin means buying stock with money borrowed against the stocks in the same account. These stocks, or collateral, guarantee that the buyer can repay the loan; otherwise, the stockbroker has the right to sell the stock (collateral) to repay the borrowed money. He can sell if the share price drops below the margin requirement, at least 50% of the value of the stocks in the account. Buying on margin works the same way as borrowing money to buy a car or a house, using a car or house as collateral. Moreover, borrowing is not free; the broker usually charges 810% interest. Selling Selling stock is procedurally similar to buying stock. Generally, the investor wants to buy low and sell high, if not in that order (short selling); although a number of reasons may induce an investor to sell at a loss, e.g., to avoid further loss. As with buying a stock, there is a transaction fee for the broker's efforts in arranging the transfer of stock from a seller to a buyer. This fee can be high or low depending on which type of brokerage, full service or discount, handles the transaction. After the transaction has been made, the seller is then entitled to all of the money. An important part of selling is keeping track of the earnings. Importantly, on selling the stock, in jurisdictions that have them, capital gains taxes will have to be paid on the additional proceeds, if any, that are in excess of the cost basis. Stock price fluctuations The price of a stock fluctuates fundamentally due to the theory of supply and demand. Like all commodities in the market, the price of a stock is sensitive to demand. However, there are many factors that influence the demand for a particular stock. The fields of fundamental analysis and technical analysis attempt to understand market conditions that lead to price changes, or even predict future price levels. A recent study shows that customer satisfaction, as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), is significantly correlated to the market value of a stock.[17] Stock price may be influenced by analyst's business forecast for the company and outlooks for the

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company's general market segment. Stocks can also fluctuate greatly due to pump and dump scams. Share price determination At any given moment, an equity's price is strictly a result of supply and demand. The supply, commonly referred to as the float, is the number of shares offered for sale at any one moment. The demand is the number of shares investors wish to buy at exactly that same time. The price of the stock moves in order to achieve and maintain equilibrium. The product of this instantaneous price and the float at any one time is the market capitalization of the entity offering the equity at that point in time. When prospective buyers outnumber sellers, the price rises. Eventually, sellers attracted to the high selling price enter the market and/or buyers leave, achieving equilibrium between buyers and sellers. When sellers outnumber buyers, the price falls. Eventually buyers enter and/or sellers leave, again achieving equilibrium. Thus, the value of a share of a company at any given moment is determined by all investors voting with their money. If more investors want a stock and are willing to pay more, the price will go up. If more investors are selling a stock and there aren't enough buyers, the price will go down. Note: "For Nasdaq-listed stocks, the price quote includes information on the bid and ask prices for the stock."[18] Of course, that does not explain how people decide the maximum price at which they are willing to buy or the minimum at which they are willing to sell. In professional investment circles the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) continues to be popular, although this theory is widely discredited in academic and professional circles. Briefly, EMH says that investing is overall (weighted by the standard deviation) rational; that the price of a stock at any given moment represents a rational evaluation of the known information that might bear on the future value of the company; and that share prices of equities are priced efficiently, which is to say that they represent accurately the expected value of the stock, as best it can be known at a given moment. In other words, prices are the result of discounting expected future cash flows. The EMH model, if true, has at least two interesting consequences. First, because financial risk is presumed to require at least a small premium on expected value, the return on equity can be expected to be slightly greater than that available from nonequity investments: if not, the same rational calculations would lead equity investors to shift to these safer non-equity investments that could be expected to give the same or better return at lower risk. Second, because the price of a share at every given moment is an "efficient" reflection of expected value, thenrelative to the curve of expected returnprices will tend to follow a random walk, determined by the emergence of information (randomly) over time. Professional equity investors therefore immerse themselves in the flow of fundamental information, seeking to gain an advantage over their competitors (mainly other professional investors) by more intelligently interpreting the emerging flow of information (news).

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The EMH model does not seem to give a complete description of the process of equity price determination. For example, stock markets are more volatile than EMH would imply. In recent years it has come to be accepted that the share markets are not perfectly efficient, perhaps especially in emerging markets or other markets that are not dominated by well-informed professional investors. Another theory of share price determination comes from the field of Behavioral Finance. According to Behavioral Finance, humans often make irrational decisions particularly, related to the buying and selling of securitiesbased upon fears and misperceptions of outcomes. The irrational trading of securities can often create securities prices which vary from rational, fundamental price valuations. For instance, during the technology bubble of the late 1990s (which was followed by the dot-com bust of 20002002), technology companies were often bid beyond any rational fundamental value because of what is commonly known as the "greater fool theory". The "greater fool theory" holds that, because the predominant method of realizing returns in equity is from the sale to another investor, one should select securities that they believe that someone else will value at a higher level at some point in the future, without regard to the basis for that other party's willingness to pay a higher price. Thus, even a rational investor may bank on others' irrationality. Arbitrage trading When companies raise capital by offering stock on more than one exchange, the potential exists for discrepancies in the valuation of shares on different exchanges. A keen investor with access to information about such discrepancies may invest in expectation of their eventual convergence, known as arbitrage trading. Electronic trading has resulted in extensive price transparency (efficient-market hypothesis) and these discrepancies, if they exist, are short-lived and quickly equilibrated. Bond (finance) In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest (the coupon) to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity. A bond is a formal contract to repay borrowed money with interest at fixed intervals (semi annual, annual, sometimes monthly).[1] Thus a bond is like a loan: the holder of the bond is the lender (creditor), the issuer of the bond is the borrower (debtor), and the coupon is the interest. Bonds provide the borrower with external funds to finance long-term investments, or, in the case of government bonds, to finance current expenditure. Certificates of deposit (CDs) or commercial paper are considered to be money market instruments and not bonds. Bonds and stocks are both securities, but the major difference between the two is that (capital) stockholders have an equity stake in the company (i.e., they are owners), whereas bondholders have a creditor stake in the company (i.e., they are lenders). Another difference is that bonds usually have a defined term, or maturity, after which the bond is redeemed, whereas stocks may be outstanding indefinitely. An exception is a consol bond, which is a perpetuity (i.e., bond with no maturity).

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Issuance Bonds are issued by public authorities, credit institutions, companies and supranational institutions in the primary markets. The most common process of issuing bonds is through underwriting. In underwriting, one or more securities firms or banks, forming a syndicate, buy an entire issue of bonds from an issuer and re-sell them to investors. The security firm takes the risk of being unable to sell on the issue to end investors. Primary issuance is arranged by bookrunners who arrange the bond issue, have direct contact with investors and act as advisers to the bond issuer in terms of timing and price of the bond issue. The bookrunners' willingness to underwrite must be discussed prior to opening books on a bond issue as there may be limited appetite to do so. In the case of government bonds, these are usually issued by auctions, called a public sale, where both members of the public and banks may bid for bond. Since the coupon is fixed, but the price is not, the percent return is a function both of the price paid as well as the coupon.[2] However, because the cost of issuance for a publicly auctioned bond can be cost prohibitive for a smaller loan, it is also common for smaller bonds to avoid the underwriting and auction process through the use of a private placement bond. In the case of a private placement bond, the bond is held by the lender and does not enter the large bond market.
[3]

Sometimes the documentation allows the issuer to borrow more at a later date by issuing further bonds on the same terms as before, but at the current market price. This is called a tap issue or bond tap.[4] Features The most important features of a bond are, nominal, principal, par or face amount the amount on which the issuer pays interest, and which, most commonly, has to be repaid at the end of the term. Some structured bonds can have a redemption amount which is different from the face amount and can be linked to performance of particular assets such as a stock or commodity index, foreign exchange rate or a fund. This can result in an investor receiving less or more than his original investment at maturity. issue price the price at which investors buy the bonds when they are first issued, which will typically be approximately equal to the nominal amount. The net proceeds that the issuer receives are thus the issue price, less issuance fees. maturity date the date on which the issuer has to repay the nominal amount. As long as all payments have been made, the issuer has no more obligation to the bond holders after the maturity date. The length of time until the maturity date is often referred to as the term or tenor or maturity of a bond. The maturity can be any length of time, although debt securities with a term of less than one year are generally designated money market instruments rather than bonds. Most bonds have a term of up to thirty years. Some bonds have been issued with maturities of up to one hundred years, and some do not mature at all. In the market for U.S. Treasury securities, there are three groups of bond maturities:

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short term (bills): maturities between one to five year; (instruments with maturities less than one year are called Money Market Instruments) medium term (notes): maturities between six to twelve years; long term (bonds): maturities greater than twelve years. coupon the interest rate that the issuer pays to the bond holders. Usually this rate is fixed throughout the life of the bond. It can also vary with a money market index, such as LIBOR, or it can be even more exotic. The name coupon originates from the fact that in the past, physical bonds were issued which had coupons attached to them. On coupon dates the bond holder would give the coupon to a bank in exchange for the interest payment. Coupons can be paid at different frequencies. It is generally semiannual or annual. The "quality" of the issue refers to the probability that the bondholders will receive the amounts promised at the due dates. This will depend on a wide range of factors. Indentures and Covenants An indenture is a formal debt agreement that establishes the terms of a bond issue, while covenants are the clauses of such an agreement. Covenants specify the rights of bondholders and the duties of issuers, such as actions that the issuer is obligated to perform or is prohibited from performing. In the U.S., federal and state securities and commercial laws apply to the enforcement of these agreements, which are construed by courts as contracts between issuers and bondholders. The terms may be changed only with great difficulty while the bonds are outstanding, with amendments to the governing document generally requiring approval by a majority (or super-majority) vote of the bondholders. High yield bonds are bonds that are rated below investment grade by the credit rating agencies. As these bonds are more risky than investment grade bonds, investors expect to earn a higher yield. These bonds are also called junk bonds. coupon dates the dates on which the issuer pays the coupon to the bond holders. In the U.S. and also in the U.K. and Europe, most bonds are semi-annual, which means that they pay a coupon every six months. Optionality: Occasionally a bond may contain an embedded option; that is, it grants option-like features to the holder or the issuer: Callability Some bonds give the issuer the right to repay the bond before the maturity date on the call dates; see call option. These bonds are referred to as callable bonds. Most callable bonds allow the issuer to repay the bond at par. With some bonds, the issuer has to pay a premium, the so called call premium. This is mainly the case for high-yield bonds. These have very strict covenants, restricting the issuer in its operations. To be free from these covenants, the issuer can repay the bonds early, but only at a high cost. Putability Some bonds give the holder the right to force the issuer to repay the bond before the maturity date on the put dates; see put option. These are referred to as retractable or putable bonds. call dates and put datesthe dates on which callable and putable bonds can be redeemed early. There are four main categories.

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A Bermudan callable has several call dates, usually coinciding with coupon dates. A European callable has only one call date. This is a special case of a Bermudan callable. An American callable can be called at any time until the maturity date. A death put is an optional redemption feature on a debt instrument allowing the beneficiary of the estate of the deceased to put (sell) the bond (back to the issuer) in the event of the beneficiary's death or legal incapacitation. Also known as a "survivor's option". sinking fund provision of the corporate bond indenture requires a certain portion of the issue to be retired periodically. The entire bond issue can be liquidated by the maturity date. If that is not the case, then the remainder is called balloon maturity. Issuers may either pay to trustees, which in turn call randomly selected bonds in the issue, or, alternatively, purchase bonds in open market, then return them to trustees. convertible bond lets a bondholder exchange a bond to a number of shares of the issuer's common stock. exchangeable bond allows for exchange to shares of a corporation other than the issuer. Types

The following descriptions are not mutually exclusive, and more than one of them may apply to a particular bond. Fixed rate bonds have a coupon that remains constant throughout the life of the bond. Floating rate notes (FRNs) have a variable coupon that is linked to a reference rate of interest, such as LIBOR or Euribor. For example the coupon may be defined as three month USD LIBOR + 0.20%. The coupon rate is recalculated periodically, typically every one or three months. Zero-coupon bonds pay no regular interest. They are issued at a substantial discount to par value, so that the interest is effectively rolled up to maturity (and usually taxed as such). The bondholder receives the full principal amount on the redemption date. An example of zero coupon bonds is Series E savings bonds issued by the U.S. government. Zero-coupon bonds may be created from fixed rate bonds by a financial institution separating ("stripping off") the coupons from the principal. In other words, the separated coupons and the final principal payment of the bond may be traded separately. See IO (Interest Only) and PO (Principal Only). Inflation linked bonds, in which the principal amount and the interest payments are indexed to inflation. The interest rate is normally lower than for fixed rate bonds with a comparable maturity (this position briefly reversed itself for short-term UK bonds in December 2008). However, as the principal amount grows, the payments increase with inflation. The United Kingdom was the first sovereign issuer to issue inflation linked Gilts in the 1980s. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and I-bonds are examples of inflation linked bonds issued by the U.S. government.

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Other indexed bonds, for example equity-linked notes and bonds indexed on a business indicator (income, added value) or on a country's GDP. Asset-backed securities are bonds whose interest and principal payments are backed by underlying cash flows from other assets. Examples of asset-backed securities are mortgage-backed securities (MBS's), collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Subordinated bonds are those that have a lower priority than other bonds of the issuer in case of liquidation. In case of bankruptcy, there is a hierarchy of creditors. First the liquidator is paid, then government taxes, etc. The first bond holders in line to be paid are those holding what is called senior bonds. After they have been paid, the subordinated bond holders are paid. As a result, the risk is higher. Therefore, subordinated bonds usually have a lower credit rating than senior bonds. The main examples of subordinated bonds can be found in bonds issued by banks, and assetbacked securities. The latter are often issued in tranches. The senior tranches get paid back first, the subordinated tranches later. Perpetual bonds are also often called perpetuities or 'Perps'. They have no maturity date. The most famous of these are the UK Consols, which are also known as Treasury Annuities or Undated Treasuries. Some of these were issued back in 1888 and still trade today, although the amounts are now insignificant. Some ultra-long-term bonds (sometimes a bond can last centuries: West Shore Railroad issued a bond which matures in 2361 (i.e. 24th century) are virtually perpetuities from a financial point of view, with the current value of principal near zero. Bearer bond is an official certificate issued without a named holder. In other words, the person who has the paper certificate can claim the value of the bond. Often they are registered by a number to prevent counterfeiting, but may be traded like cash. Bearer bonds are very risky because they can be lost or stolen. Especially after federal income tax began in the United States, bearer bonds were seen as an opportunity to conceal income or assets.[5] U.S. corporations stopped issuing bearer bonds in the 1960s, the U.S. Treasury stopped in 1982, and state and local tax-exempt bearer bonds were prohibited in 1983.[6] Registered bond is a bond whose ownership (and any subsequent purchaser) is recorded by the issuer, or by a transfer agent. It is the alternative to a Bearer bond. Interest payments, and the principal upon maturity, are sent to the registered owner. Treasury bond, also called government bond, is issued by the Federal government and is not exposed to default risk. It is characterized as the safest bond, with the lowest interest rate. A treasury bond is backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government. For that reason, this type of bond is often referred to as risk-free.

Pacific Railroad Bond issued by City and County of San Francisco, CA. May 1, 1865

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Municipal bond is a bond issued by a state, U.S. Territory, city, local government, or their agencies. Interest income received by holders of municipal bonds is often exempt from the federal income tax and from the income tax of the state in which they are issued, although municipal bonds issued for certain purposes may not be tax exempt. Build America Bonds (BABs) is a new form of municipal bond authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Unlike traditional municipal bonds, which are usually tax exempt, interest received on BABs is subject to federal taxation. However, as with municipal bonds, the bond is tax-exempt within the state it is issued. Generally, BABs offer significantly higher yields (over 7 percent) than standard municipal bonds.[7] Book-entry bond is a bond that does not have a paper certificate. As physically processing paper bonds and interest coupons became more expensive, issuers (and banks that used to collect coupon interest for depositors) have tried to discourage their use. Some book-entry bond issues do not offer the option of a paper certificate, even to investors who prefer them.[8] Lottery bond is a bond issued by a state, usually a European state. Interest is paid like a traditional fixed rate bond, but the issuer will redeem randomly selected individual bonds within the issue according to a schedule. Some of these redemptions will be for a higher value than the face value of the bond. War bond is a bond issued by a country to fund a war. Serial bond is a bond that matures in installments over a period of time. In effect, a $100,000, 5-year serial bond would mature in a $20,000 annuity over a 5-year interval. Revenue bond is a special type of municipal bond distinguished by its guarantee of repayment solely from revenues generated by a specified revenue-generating entity associated with the purpose of the bonds. Revenue bonds are typically "non-recourse," meaning that in the event of default, the bond holder has no recourse to other governmental assets or revenues. Climate bond is a bond issued by a government or corporate entity in order to raise finance for climate change mitigation or adaptation related projects or programs. Foreign currencies Some companies, banks, governments, and other sovereign entities may decide to issue bonds in foreign currencies as it may appear to be more stable and predictable than their domestic currency. Issuing bonds denominated in foreign currencies also gives issuers the ability to access investment capital available in foreign markets. The proceeds from the issuance of these bonds can be used by companies to break into foreign markets, or can be converted into the issuing company's local currency to be used on existing operations through the use of foreign exchange swap hedges. Foreign issuer bonds can also be used to hedge foreign exchange rate risk. Some foreign issuer bonds are called by their nicknames, such as the "samurai bond." These can be issued by foreign issuers looking to diversify their investor base away from domestic markets. These bond issues are generally governed by the law of the market of issuance, e.g., a

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samurai bond, issued by an investor based in Europe, will be governed by Japanese law. Not all of the following bonds are restricted for purchase by investors in the market of issuance. Eurodollar bond, a U.S. dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-U.S. entity outside the U.S[9] Yankee bond, a US dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-US entity in the US market Kangaroo bond, an Australian dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-Australian entity in the Australian market Maple bond, a Canadian dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-Canadian entity in the Canadian market Samurai bond, a Japanese yen-denominated bond issued by a non-Japanese entity in the Japanese market Uridashi bond, a non-yen-demoninated bond sold to Japanese retail investors. Shibosai Bond, a private placement bond in Japanese market with distribution limited to institutions and banks. Shogun bond, a non-yen-denominated bond issued in Japan by a non-Japanese institution or government[10] Bulldog bond, a pound sterling-denominated bond issued in London by a foreign institution or government Matrioshka bond, a Russian rouble-denominated bond issued in the Russian Federation by non-Russian entities. The name derives from the famous Russian wooden dolls, Matrioshka, popular among foreign visitors to Russia Arirang bond, a Korean won-denominated bond issued by a non-Korean entity in the Korean market[11] Kimchi bond, a non-Korean won-denominated bond issued by a non-Korean entity in the Korean market[12] Formosa bond, a non-New Taiwan Dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-Taiwan entity in the Taiwan market[13] Panda bond, a Chinese renminbi-denominated bond issued by a non-China entity in the People's Republic of China market[14] Dim sum bond, a Chinese renminbi-denominated bond issued by a Chinese entity in Hong Kong. Enables foreign investors forbidden from investing in Chinese corporate debt in mainland China to invest in and be exposed to Chinese currency in Hong Kong.[15] Huaso bond, a Chilean peso-denominated bond issued by a non-Chilean entity in the Chilean market.[16] Kauri bond, a New Zealand dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-New Zealand entity in the New Zealand market.[17] Reckoning

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The interest rate that the issuer of a bond must pay is influenced by a variety of factors, such as current market interest rates, the length of the term and the creditworthiness of the issuer. These factors are likely to change over time, so the market price of a bond will vary after it is issued. This price is expressed as a percentage of nominal value. Bonds are not necessarily issued at par (100% of face value, corresponding to a price of 100), but bond prices converge to par when they approach maturity (if the market expects the maturity payment to be made in full and on time) as this is the price the issuer will pay to redeem the bond. This is referred to as "Pull to Par". At other times, prices can be above par (bond is priced at greater than 100), which is called trading at a premium, or below par (bond is priced at less than 100), which is called trading at a discount. Most government bonds are denominated in units of $1000 in the United States, or in units of 100 in the United Kingdom. Hence, a deep discount US bond, selling at a price of 75.26, indicates a selling price of $752.60 per bond sold. (Often, in the US, bond prices are quoted in points and thirty-seconds of a point, rather than in decimal form.) Some short-term bonds, such as the U.S. Treasury Bill, are always issued at a discount, and pay par amount at maturity rather than paying coupons. This is called a discount bond. The market price of a bond is the present value of all expected future interest and principal payments of the bond discounted at the bond's redemption yield, or rate of return. That relationship defines the redemption yield on the bond, which represents the current market interest rate for bonds with similar characteristics. The yield and price of a bond are inversely related so that when market interest rates rise, bond prices fall and vice versa. Thus the redemption yield could be considered to be made up of two parts: the current yield (see below) and the expected capital gain or loss: roughly the current yield plus the capital gain (negative for loss) per year until redemption. The market price of a bond may include the accrued interest since the last coupon date. (Some bond markets include accrued interest in the trading price and others add it on explicitly after trading.) The price including accrued interest is known as the "full" or "dirty price". (See also Accrual bond.) The price excluding accrued interest is known as the "flat" or "clean price". The interest rate adjusted for (divided by) the current price of the bond is called the current yield (this is the nominal yield multiplied by the par value and divided by the price). There are other yield measures that exist such as the yield to first call, yield to worst, yield to first par call, yield to put, cash flow yield and yield to maturity. The relationship between yield and maturity for otherwise identical bonds is called a yield curve. A yield curve is essentially a measure of the term structure of bonds. Bonds markets, unlike stock or share markets, often do not have a centralized exchange or trading system. Rather, in most developed bond markets such as the U.S., Japan and western Europe, bonds trade in decentralized, dealer-based over-thecounter markets. In such a market, market liquidity is provided by dealers and other

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market participants committing risk capital to trading activity. In the bond market, when an investor buys or sells a bond, the counterparty to the trade is almost always a bank or securities firm acting as a dealer. In some cases, when a dealer buys a bond from an investor, the dealer carries the bond "in inventory." The dealer's position is then subject to risks of price fluctuation. In other cases, the dealer immediately resells the bond to another investor. Bond markets can also differ from stock markets in that, in some markets, investors sometimes do not pay brokerage commissions to dealers with whom they buy or sell bonds. Rather, the dealers earn revenue by means of the spread, or difference, between the price at which the dealer buys a bond from one investorthe "bid" priceand the price at which he or she sells the same bond to another investorthe "ask" or "offer" price. The bid/offer spread represents the total transaction cost associated with transferring a bond from one investor to another. Investing in bonds Bonds are bought and traded mostly by institutions like central banks, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies and banks. Most individuals who want to own bonds do so through bond funds. Still, in the U.S., nearly 10% of all bonds outstanding are held directly by households. Sometimes, bond markets rise (while yields fall) when stock markets fall. More relevantly, the volatility of bonds (especially short and medium dated bonds) is lower than that of stocks. Thus bonds are generally viewed as safer investments than stocks, but this perception is only partially correct. Bonds do suffer from less day-to-day volatility than stocks, and bonds' interest payments are often higher than the general level of dividend payments. Bonds are liquid it is fairly easy to sell one's bond investments, though not nearly as easy as it is to sell stocks and the comparative certainty of a fixed interest payment twice per year is attractive. Bondholders also enjoy a measure of legal protection: under the law of most countries, if a company goes bankrupt, its bondholders will often receive some money back (the recovery amount), whereas the company's stock often ends up valueless. However, bonds can also be risky but less risky than stocks: Fixed rate bonds are subject to interest rate risk, meaning that their market prices will decrease in value when the generally prevailing interest rates rise. Since the payments are fixed, a decrease in the market price of the bond means an increase in its yield. When the market interest rate rises, the market price of bonds will fall, reflecting investors' ability to get a higher interest rate on their money elsewhere perhaps by purchasing a newly issued bond that already features the newly higher interest rate. Note that this drop in the bond's market price does not affect the interest payments to the bondholder at all, so long-term investors who want a specific amount at the maturity date do not need to worry about price swings in their bonds and do not suffer from interest rate risk.

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Bonds are also subject to various other risks such as call and prepayment risk, credit risk, reinvestment risk, liquidity risk, event risk, exchange rate risk, volatility risk, inflation risk, sovereign risk and yield curve risk. Price changes in a bond will also immediately affect mutual funds that hold these bonds. If the value of the bonds held in a trading portfolio has fallen over the day, the value of the portfolio will also have fallen. This can be damaging for professional investors such as banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers (irrespective of whether the value is immediately "marked to market" or not). If there is any chance a holder of individual bonds may need to sell his bonds and "cash out", interest rate risk could become a real problem (conversely, bonds' market prices would increase if the prevailing interest rate were to drop, as it did from 2001 through 2003[citation needed]). One way to quantify the interest rate risk on a bond is in terms of its duration. Efforts to control this risk are called immunization or hedging. Bond prices can become volatile depending on the credit rating of the issuer for instance if the credit rating agencies like Standard & Poor's and Moody's upgrade or downgrade the credit rating of the issuer. A downgrade will cause the market price of the bond to fall. As with interest rate risk, this risk does not affect the bond's interest payments (provided the issuer does not actually default), but puts at risk the market price, which affects mutual funds holding these bonds, and holders of individual bonds who may have to sell them. A company's bondholders may lose much or all their money if the company goes bankrupt. Under the laws of many countries (including the United States and Canada), bondholders are in line to receive the proceeds of the sale of the assets of a liquidated company ahead of some other creditors. Bank lenders, deposit holders (in the case of a deposit taking institution such as a bank) and trade creditors may take precedence. There is no guarantee of how much money will remain to repay bondholders. As an example, after an accounting scandal and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the giant telecommunications company Worldcom, in 2004 its bondholders ended up being paid 35.7 cents on the dollar[citation needed]. In a bankruptcy involving reorganization or recapitalization, as opposed to liquidation, bondholders may end up having the value of their bonds reduced, often through an exchange for a smaller number of newly issued bonds. Some bonds are callable, meaning that even though the company has agreed to make payments plus interest towards the debt for a certain period of time, the company can choose to pay off the bond early. This creates reinvestment risk, meaning the investor is forced to find a new place for his money, and the investor might not be able to find as good a deal, especially because this usually happens when interest rates are falling. Bond indices A number of bond indices exist for the purposes of managing portfolios and measuring performance, similar to the S&P 500 or Russell Indexes for stocks. The most common American benchmarks are the Barclays Capital Aggregate (ex Lehman Aggregate), Citigroup BIG and Merrill Lynch Domestic Master. Most indices are parts of families of

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broader indices that can be used to measure global bond portfolios, or may be further subdivided by maturity and/or sector for managing specialized portfolios. Debenture A debenture is a document that either creates a debt or acknowledges it, and it is a debt without collateral. In corporate finance, the term is used for a medium- to longterm debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money. In some countries the term is used interchangeably with bond, loan stock or note. A debenture is thus like a certificate of loan or a loan bond evidencing the fact that the company is liable to pay a specified amount with interest and although the money raised by the debentures becomes a part of the company's capital structure, it does not become share capital.[1] Senior debentures get paid before subordinate debentures, and there are varying rates of risk and payoff for these categories. Debentures are generally freely transferable by the debenture holder. Debenture holders have no rights to vote in the company's general meetings of shareholders, but they may have separate meetings or votes e.g. on changes to the rights attached to the debentures. The interest paid to them is a charge against profit in the company's financial statements. Attributes A movable property. Issued by the company in the form of a certificate of indebtedness. It generally specifies the date of redemption, repayment of principal and interest on specified dates. May or may not create a charge on the assets of the company.[2] Corporations often issue bonds of around $1000, while government bonds are more likely to be $5000. Debentures gave rise to the idea of the rich "clipping their coupons," which means that a bondholder will present their "coupon" to the bank and receive a payment each quarter (or in whatever period is specified in the agreement). There are also other features that minimize risk, such as a "sinking fund," which means that the debtor must pay some of the value of the bond after a specified period of time. This decreases risk for the creditors, as a hedge against inflation, bankruptcy, or other risk factors. A sinking fund makes the bond less risky, and therefore gives it a smaller "coupon" (or interest payment). There are also options for "convertibility," which means a creditor may turn their bonds into equity in the company if it does well. Companies also reserve the right to call their bonds, which mean they can call it sooner than the maturity date. Often there is a clause in the contract that allows this; for example, if a bond issuer wishes to rebuy a 30 year bond at the 25th year, they must pay a premium. If a bond is called, it means that less interest is paid out. Failure to pay a bond effectively means bankruptcy. Bondholders who have not received their interest can throw an offending company into bankruptcy, or seize its assets if that is stipulated in the contract. Security in different jurisdictions 58

In the United States, debenture refers specifically to an unsecured corporate bond,[3] i.e. a bond that does not have a certain line of income or piece of property or equipment to guarantee repayment of principal upon the bond's maturity. Where security is provided for loan stocks or bonds in the US, they are termed 'mortgage bonds'. However, in the United Kingdom a debenture is usually secured.[4] In Canada, a debenture refers to a secured loan instrument where security is generally over the debtor's credit, but security is not pledged to specific assets. Like other secured debts, the debenture gives the debtor priority status over unsecured creditors in a bankruptcy; however debt instruments where security is pledged to specific assets (such as a bond) receive a higher priority status in a bankruptcy than do debentures[citation
needed].

In Asia, if repayment is secured by a charge over land, the loan document is called a mortgage; where repayment is secured by a charge against other assets of the company, the document is called a debenture; and where no security is involved, the document is called a note or 'unsecured deposit note'.[5] Convertibility There are two types of debentures: Convertible debentures, which are convertible bonds or bonds that can be converted into equity shares of the issuing company after a predetermined period of time. "Convertibility" is a feature that corporations may add to the bonds they issue to make them more attractive to buyers. In other words, it is a special feature that a corporate bond may carry. As a result of the advantage a buyer gets from the ability to convert, convertible bonds typically have lower interest rates than non-convertible corporate bonds. Non-convertible debentures, which are simply regular debentures, cannot be converted into equity shares of the liable company. They are debentures without the convertibility feature attached to them. As a result, they usually carry higher interest rates than their convertible counterparts.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Debentures

The Advantages of Debentures are as follows: 1) The holders of the debentures are entitled to a fixed rate of interest. It can be presented as "5% Debenture". 2) Debentures are for those who want a safe and secure income as they are guaranteed payments with high interest rates. 3) They have priority over other unsecured creditors when it comes to debt repayment. The Disadvantages of Debentures are: 1) Unlike ordinary shares, debenture holders are not considered the owners of the company. They are long term loan capital and holders will have no right to vote at the annual general meeting. 2) Debentures are more secure than stocks, but will lead to a lower rate of theoretical return.

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3) It is a type of debt instrument which is not secured by collateral (or physical asset). In case of bankruptcy, the bond holders are given priority over the debenture holders.

What is a Debenture? A Debenture is a debt security issued by a company (called the Issuer), which offers to pay interest in lieu of the money borrowed for a certain period. In essence it represents a loan taken by the issuer who pays an agreed rate of interest during the lifetime of the instrument and repays the principal normally, unless otherwise agreed, on maturity. These are long-term debt instruments issued by private sector companies. These are issued in denominations as low as Rs 1000 and have maturities ranging between one and ten years. Long maturity debentures are rarely issued, as investors are not comfortable with such maturities Debentures enable investors to reap the dual benefits of adequate security and good returns. Unlike other fixed income instruments such as Fixed Deposits, Bank Deposits they can be transferred from one party to another by using transfer from. Debentures are normally issued in physical form. However, corporates/PSUs have started issuing debentures in Demat form. Generally, debentures are less liquid as compared to PSU bonds and their liquidity is inversely proportional to the residual maturity. Debentures can be secured or unsecured. What are the different types of debentures? Debentures are divided into different categories on the basis of: (1)convertibility of the instrument (2) Security Debentures can be classified on the basis of convertibility into: Non Convertible Debentures (NCD): These instruments retain the debt character and can not be converted in to equity shares Partly Convertible Debentures (PCD): A part of these instruments are converted into Equity shares in the future at notice of the issuer. The issuer decides the ratio for conversion. This is normally decided at the time of subscription. Fully convertible Debentures (FCD): These are fully convertible into Equity shares at the issuer's notice. The ratio of conversion is decided by the issuer. Upon conversion the investors enjoy the same status as ordinary shareholders of the company. Optionally Convertible Debentures (OCD): The investor has the option to either convert these debentures into shares at price decided by the issuer/agreed upon at the time of issue.

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On basis of Security, debentures are classified into: Secured Debentures: These instruments are secured by a charge on the fixed assets of the issuer company. So if the issuer fails on payment of either the principal or interest amount, his assets can be sold to repay the liability to the investors Unsecured Debentures: These instrument are unsecured in the sense that if the issuer defaults on payment of the interest or principal amount, the investor has to be along with other unsecured creditors of the company.
Convertible bond In finance, a convertible note (or, if it has a maturity of greater than 10 years, a convertible debenture) is a type of bond that the holder can convert into shares of common stock in the issuing company or cash of equal value, at an agreed-upon price. It is a hybrid security with debt- and equity-like features. Although it typically has a low coupon rate, the instrument carries additional value through the option to convert the bond to stock, and thereby participate in further growth in the company's equity value. The investor receives the potential upside of conversion into equity while protecting downside with cash flow from the coupon payments. From the issuer's perspective, the key benefit of raising money by selling convertible bonds is a reduced cash interest payment. The advantage for companies of issuing convertible bonds is that, if the bonds are converted to stocks, companies' debt vanishes. However, in exchange for the benefit of reduced interest payments, the value of shareholder's equity is reduced due to the stock dilution expected when bondholders convert their bonds into new shares. The convertible bond markets in the United States and Japan are of primary global importance. These two domestic markets are the largest in terms of market capitalisation. Other domestic convertible bond markets are often illiquid, and pricing is frequently non-standardised.[citation needed] USA: It is a highly liquid market compared to other domestic markets. Domestic investors have tended to be most active within US convertibles Japan: In Japan, the convertible bond market is more regulated than other markets. It consists of a large number of small issuers. Europe: Convertible bonds have become an increasingly important source of finance for firms in Europe. Compared to other global markets, European convertible bonds tend to be of high credit quality. Asia (ex Japan): The Asia region provides a wide range of choice for an investor. The maturity of Asian convertible bond markets vary widely. Canada: Canadian convertible bonds are exchange traded. Most of the Canadian convertible bond market consists of unsecured sub-investment grade bonds with high yields that are reflective of the issuer's risk of default.[1] Domestics versus Euroconvertible bonds A further important classification is between the domestic and euroconvertibles markets. Euroconvertibles pay their interest gross 61

and are free of transfer duty when bought, and are delivered into Euroclear or Clearstream for 7 day settlement. Domestics may have different settlement dates, they may pay their interest net of tax and be subject to transaction taxes. European euroconvertibles are generally highly liquid and have a pan-European investor base, dominated by hedge funds and proprietary desks. European domestic convertibles (such as in the UK and Italy) are dominated more by local investment institutions. Since the early nineteen-eighties, foreigners have been able to receive interest on U.S. domestic convertible bonds gross, and this has broadened the global investor base to embrace global hedge funds and other global investors. Likewise, foreigners have been able to receive interest gross on French convertibles (obligations convertibles or OCs), further blurring the differentiation between the domestic and euro CB markets. The panEuropean CB market has substantially replaced the various domestic CB markets, and the driver behind this has been the ability of cross-border investors to receive interest payments gross. Structure and features Like any typical bond, convertible bonds have an issue size, issue date, maturity date, maturity value, face value and coupon. They also have the following additional features: Conversion price: The nominal price per share at which conversion takes place. Conversion ratio: The number of shares each convertible bond converts into. It may be expressed per bond or on a per centum (per 100) basis. Parity (Conversion) value: Equity price Conversion ratio. Conversion premium: Represent the divergence of the market value of the CB compared to that of the parity value. Call features: The ability of the issuer (on some bonds) to call a bond early for redemption, sometimes subject to certain share price performance. The intention is to encourage investors to convert early into equity (which has now become worth more than the bond's face value), by threatening repayment in cash for what is now a lower amount. Types There are many variations of the basic structure of a convertible bond. Vanilla convertible bonds are bonds which may be converted at the option of the owner into the shares of the issuer, usually at a pre-determined rate. They may or may not be redeemable by the issuer prior to the final maturity date, subject to certain share price performance conditions. Exchangeables (XB) are bonds which may be exchanged into shares other than those of the issuer. Strictly speaking, they are not convertibles, but they share certain common evaluation characteristics. Mandatory convertibles are short duration securitiesgenerally with yields higher than found on the underlying common shares that are mandatorily convertible upon maturity into a fixed number of common shares. If it is intended to provide a minimum value for the convertible at maturity, convertibility may be into a sufficient 62

number of shares based on the stock price at maturity to provide that minimum redemption value. Mandatory exchangeables are short duration securitiesgenerally with yields higher than found on the underlying common shares that are mandatorily exchangeable upon maturity into a fixed number of common shares. Likewise, if it is intended to provide a minimum value for the convertible at maturity, exchange may be into a sufficient number of shares (based on the stock price at maturity) to provide that minimum redemption value. Such exchangeables may be said to be "redeemed into equity", and care should be taken when reading the offering documentation, lest "redemption" and "conversion" are confused. Contingent convertibles (co-co) only allow the investor to convert into stock if the price of the stock is a certain percentage above the conversion price. For example, a contingent convertible with a $10 stock price at issue, 30% conversion premium and a contingent conversion trigger of 120%, can be converted (at $13) only if the stock trades above $15.60 ($13 x 120%) over a specified period, often 20 out of 30 days before the end of the quarter. The co-co feature was often favored by issuers because the shares of underlying common stock were only required to be included in diluted EPS calculation if the issuer's stock traded above the contingent conversion price. In contrast, non-co-co convertible bonds result in an immediate increase in diluted shares outstanding, thereby reducing the EPS. The impact to diluted shares outstanding is calculated using the "as-if-converted" method, which requires the most conservative EPS value be used. Recent changes to GAAP have eliminated the favorable treatment of co-co's, and as a result their popularity with issuers has waned. Another type of co-co's issued by some banks convert into stock if the core capital of the bank falls below a trigger level.[2] OCEANEs (or Obligation Convertible En Actions Nouvelles ou Existantes) are bonds which may be converted into the equity of the issuer, but the issuer has the right to deliver new shares or old shares held in Treasury (possibly with different dividend rights). They are a common structure for French issues. These bonds are technically not convertibles, as defined by the law of 25 February 1953. Consequently, there is no three-month conversion period for investors following the date that bonds called are due for redemption, (as is otherwise required, under French law, for French convertibles). Convertible preferred stock, (convertible preference shares in the UK), is similar in valuation to a bond, but with lower seniority in the capital structure. Non-payment of income is generally not regarded as an act of default by the issuer. The terms of each issue will define whether or not entitlement to unpaid preference income is cumulative. SPV structures; Many convertibles, particularly Euroconvertibles, are issued through special purpose vehicles (SPVs), (typically a subsidiary based offshore in British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands or Jersey). The SPV debt is convertible (exchangeable to be

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more precise) into the equity of the parent company, which is often a holding company. Although the parent may guarantee the SPV debt on an unsubordinated basis, the assets of a parent company could just be shares of various subsidiaries. This means that nominally unsubordinated guarantee on the debt could in fact be structurally subordinated. More significantly, the basis of seniority upon which money raised by the issuing entity has been onwardly applied is rarely revealed at issue; if on-lent on a subordinated basis, the asset quality of the issuing entity and its debt is impaired. This creates a fundamental weakness in the credit analysis of any convertible and non-convertible SPV debt. Reverse convertible securities are short-term coupon-bearing notes, structured to provide enhanced yield while participating in certain equity-like risks. Reverse convertibles securities are most commonly targeted towards the US market. Their investment value is derived from underlying equity exposure, which is paid in the form of fixed coupons. Generally speaking, the higher the coupon payment, the more likely it is that the investor is delivered shares on maturity. Investors receive full principal back at maturity (plus accrued interest) in cash (but no more) if the Knockin Level is not breached at any time during the life of the security. The Knock-in level is typically 70-80% of the initial reference price. The underlying stock, index or basket of equities is defined as Reference Shares. In most cases, Reverse convertibles are linked to a single stock. Going-public bonds are fixed interest securities which convert or exchange into shares of a company when it later achieves a stock market listing. Distribution is initially syndicated to sub-underwriters, this distribution typically being helped by a shortterm redemption feature, possibly in equity, at or near the subsequently prevailing share price. This reduces the downside risks to sub-underwriters taking bonds at issue. Some time subsequent to their issue, the bonds become convertible or exchangeable into shares, the conversion price reflecting in some measure the share price (or expected share price) at the time of conversion and may be fixed at a discount, to encourage conversion. The key element of going-public bonds is that the primary distribution date is de-coupled from the date when the conversion or exchange price is fixed. In France a series of such bonds were known as Balladur bonds. Hybrid bonds typically are issued as loan capital, but the issuer retains the right to exchange or convert the bonds into convertible preference shares with similar conversion rights and income. The purpose is generally to ensure that the bonds (as loan capital) have the tax offset-ability (against taxable profits) of loan interest, and perhaps pay gross to qualifying investors. At the same time, the ability to change the bonds into cumulative or non-cumulative preference capital should mean that they pose less balance sheet risk. The issuer only achieves the best of both worlds if the hybrid bond is structured so that non-payment of interest does not constitute an event of default. Valuation

See also Bond option: Embedded options, for further detail.

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In theory, the market price of a convertible debenture should never drop below its intrinsic value. The intrinsic value is simply the number of shares being converted at par value times the current market price of common shares. The 3 main stages of convertible bond behaviour are: In-the-money convertible bonds At-the-money convertible bonds Out-the-money In-the-money: Conversion Price is < Equity Price. At-the-money: Conversion Price is = Equity Price. Out-the-money: Conversion Price is > Equity Price. In-the-money CB's are considered as being within Area of Equity (the right hand side of the diagram) At-the-money CB's are considered as being within Area of Equity & Debt (the middle part of the diagram) Out-the-money CB's are considered as being within Area of Debt (the left hand side of the diagram) From a valuation perspective, a convertible bond consists of two assets: a bond and a warrant. Valuing a convertible requires an assumption of the underlying stock volatility to value the option and the credit spread for the fixed income portion that takes into account the firm's credit profile and the ranking of the convertible within the capital structure. Using the market price of the convertible, one can determine the implied volatility (using the assumed spread) or implied spread (using the assumed volatility). This volatility/credit dichotomy is the standard practice for valuing convertibles. What makes convertibles so interesting is that, except in the case of exchangeables (see above), one cannot entirely separate the volatility from the credit. Higher volatility (a good thing) tends to accompany weaker credit (bad). In the case of exchangeables, the credit quality of the issuer may be decoupled from the volatility of the underlying shares. The true artists of convertibles and exchangeables are the people who know how to play this balancing act. A simple method for calculating the value of a convertible involves calculating the present value of future interest and principal payments at the cost of debt and adds the present value of the warrant. However, this method ignores certain market realities including stochastic interest rates and credit spreads, and does not take into account popular convertible features such as issuer calls, investor puts, and conversion rate resets. The most popular models for valuing convertibles with these features are finite difference models such as binomial and trinomial trees. Binomial valuations Since 1991-92, most market-makers in Europe have employed binomial models to evaluate convertibles. Models were available from INSEAD, Trend Data of Canada, Bloomberg LP and from home-developed models, amongst others. These models needed an input of credit spread, volatility for pricing (historic volatility often used), and the risk-free rate of return. The binomial calculation assumes there is

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a bell-shaped probability distribution to future share prices, and the higher the volatility, the flatter is the bell-shape. Where there are issuer calls and investor puts, these will affect the expected residual period of optionality, at different share price levels. The binomial value is a weighted expected value, (1) taking readings from all the different nodes of a lattice expanding out from current prices and (2) taking account of varying periods of expected residual optionality at different share price levels. The three biggest areas of subjectivity are (1) the rate of volatility used, for volatility is not constant, and (2) whether or not to incorporate into the model a cost of stock borrow, for hedge funds and market-makers. The third important factor is (3) the dividend status of the equity delivered, if the bond is called, as the issuer may time the calling of the bond to minimise the dividend cost to the issuer. [edit] Uses for investors Convertible bonds are usually issued offering a higher yield than obtainable on the shares into which the bonds convert. Convertible bonds are safer than preferred or common shares for the investor. They provide asset protection, because the value of the convertible bond will only fall to the value of the bond floor. At the same time, convertible bonds can provide the possibility of high equity-like returns. Also, convertible bonds are usually less volatile than regular shares. Indeed, a convertible bond behaves like a call option. Therefore, if C is the call price and S the regular share then

In consequence, since

we get

, which implies that the variation of

C is less than the variation of S, which can be interpreted as less volatility. The simultaneous purchase of convertible bonds and the short sale of the same issuer's common stock is a hedge fund strategy known as convertible arbitrage. The motivation for such a strategy is that the equity option embedded in a convertible bond is a source of cheap volatility, which can be exploited by convertible arbitrageurs. In limited circumstances, certain convertible bonds can be sold short, thus depressing the market value for a stock, and allowing the debt-holder to claim more stock with which to sell short. This is known as death spiral financing. [edit] Redemption Options/Strategies Soft put - can be redeemed for cash, stock or notes or a combination of all three at the company's discretion. Hard put - payable only in cash Protective put - buying a put option for the underlying bond security Subordinated put Convertible put - convert to share by paying a charge [edit] Uses for issuers

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Lower fixed-rate borrowing costs. Convertible bonds allow issuers to issue debt at a lower cost. Typically, a convertible bond at issue yields 1% to 3% less than straight bonds. Locking into low fixedrate long-term borrowing. For a finance director watching the trend in interest rates, there is an attraction in trying to catch the lowest point in the cycle to fund with fixed rate debt, or swap variable rate bank borrowings for fixed rate convertible borrowing. Even if the fixed market turns, it may still be possible for a company to borrow via a convertible carrying a lower coupon than ever would have been possible with straight debt funding. Higher conversion price than a rights issue strike price. Similarly, the conversion price a company fixes on a convertible can be higher than the level that the share price ever reached recently. Compare the equity dilution on a convertible issued on, say, a 20 or 30pct premium to the higher equity dilution on a rights issue, when the new shares are offered on, say, a 15 to 20pct discount to the prevailing share price. Voting dilution deferred. With a convertible bond, dilution of the voting rights of existing shareholders only happens on eventual conversion of the bond. However convertible preference shares typically carry voting rights when preference dividends are in arrears. Of course, the bigger voting impact occurs if the issuer decides to issue an exchangeable rather than a convertible. Increasing the total level of debt gearing. Convertibles can be used to increase the total amount of debt a company has in issue. The market tends to expect that a company will not increase straight debt beyond certain limits, without it negatively impacting upon the credit rating and the cost of debt. Convertibles can provide additional funding when the straight debt window may not be open. Subordination of convertible debt is often regarded as an acceptable risk by investors if the conversion rights are attractive by way of compensation. Maximising funding permitted under pre-emption rules. For countries, such as the UK, where companies are subject to limits on the number of shares that can be offered to non-shareholders non-pre-emptively, convertibles can raise more money than via equity issues. Under the UKs 1989 Guidelines issued by the Investor Protection Committees (IPCs) of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the National Association of Pension Fund Managers (NAPF), the IPCs will advise their members not to object to non pre-emptive issues which add no more than 5pct to historic nondiluted balance sheet equity in the period from AGM to AGM, and no more than 7.5pct in total over a period of 3 financial years. The pre-emption limits are calculated on the assumption of 100pct probability of conversion, using the figure of undiluted historic balance sheet share capital (where there is assumed a 0pct probability of conversion). There is no attempt to assign probabilities of conversion in both circumstances, which would result in bigger convertible issues being permitted. The reason for his inconsistency may lie in the fact that the Pre Emption Guidelines were drawn up in 1989, and binomial evaluations were not commonplace amongst professional investors until 1991-92.

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Premium redemption convertibles such as the majority of French convertibles and zero-coupon Liquid Yield Option Notes (LYONs), provide a fixed interest return at issue which is significantly (or completely) accounted for by the appreciation to the redemption price. If, however, the bonds are converted by investors before the maturity date, the issuer will have benefited by having issued the bonds on a low or even zerocoupon. The higher the premium redemption price, (1) the more the shares have to travel for conversion to take place before the maturity date, and (2) the lower the conversion premium has to be at issue to ensure that the conversion rights are credible. Takeover paper. Convertibles have a place as the currency used in takeovers. The bidder can offer a higher income on a convertible than the dividend yield on a bid victims shares, without having to raise the dividend yield on all the bidders shares. This eases the process for a bidder with low-yield shares acquiring a company with higher-yielding shares. Perversely, the lower the yield on the bidders shares, the easier it is for the bidder to create a higher conversion premium on the convertible, with consequent benefits for the mathematics of the takeover. In the 1980s, UK domestic convertibles accounted for about 80pct of the European convertibles market, and over 80pct of these were issued either as takeover currency or as funding for takeovers. They had several cosmetic attractions. The pro-forma fully diluted earnings per share shows none of the extra cost of servicing the convertible up to the conversion day irrespective of whether the coupon was 10pct or 15pct. The fully diluted earnings per share is also calculated on a smaller number of shares than if equity was used as the takeover currency. In some countries (such as Finland) convertibles of various structures may be treated as equity by the local accounting profession. In such circumstances, the accounting treatment may result in less pro-forma debt than if straight debt was used as takeover currency or to fund an acquisition. The perception was that gearing was less with a convertible than if straight debt was used instead. In the UK the predecessor to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) put a stop to treating convertible preference shares as equity. Instead it has to be classified both as (1) preference capital and as (2) convertible as well. Nevertheless, none of the (possibly substantial) preference dividend cost incurred when servicing a convertible preference share is visible in the pro-forma consolidated pretax profits statement. The cosmetic benefits in (1) reported pro-forma diluted earnings per share, (2) debt gearing (for a while) and (3) pro-forma consolidated pre-tax profits (for convertible preference shares) led to UK convertible preference shares being the largest European class of convertibles in the early 1980s, until the tighter terms achievable on Euroconvertible bonds resulted in Euroconvertible new issues eclipsing domestic convertibles (including convertible preference shares) from the mid 1980s. Tax advantages. The market for convertibles is primarily pitched towards the non taxpaying investor. The price will substantially reflect (1) the value of the underlying shares, (2) the discounted gross income advantage of the convertible over the

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underlying shares, plus (3) some figure for the embedded optionality of the bond. The tax advantage is greatest with mandatory convertibles. Effectively a high tax-paying shareholder can benefit from the company securitising gross future income on the convertible, income which it can offset against taxable profits. American depositary receipt

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012) An American depositary receipt (ADR) is a negotiable security that represents the underlying securities of a non-US company that trades in the US financial markets. Individual shares of the securities of the foreign company represented by an ADR are called American depositary shares (ADSs). The stock of many non-US companies trades on US stock exchanges through the use of ADRs. ADRs are denominated, and pay dividends, in US dollars, and may be traded like shares of stock of US-domiciled companies. The first ADR was introduced by J.P. Morgan in 1927 for the British retailer Selfridges. There are currently four major commercial banks that provide depositary bank services: BNY Mellon, J.P. Morgan, Citi, and Deutsche Bank. Contents 1 Depositary receipts 2 ADR programs (facilities) 2.1 Unsponsored ADRs 2.2 Sponsored Level I ADRs ("OTC" facility) 2.3 Sponsored Level II ADRs ("Listing" facility) 2.4 Sponsored Level III ADRs ("offering" facility) 2.5 Restricted Programs 2.5.1 Privately placed (SEC Rule 144A) ADRs 2.5.2 Offshore (SEC Regulation S) ADRs 3 Sourcing ADRs 4 ADR termination 5 See also 6 External links

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Depositary receipts More generally, depositary receipts (DRs) are negotiable securities that represent the underlying securities of foreign companies that trade in a domestic market. DRs enable domestic investors to buy the securities of a foreign company without the accompanying risks or inconveniences of cross-border and cross-currency transactions. Each DR is issued by a domestic depositary bank when the underlying shares are deposited in a foreign custodian bank, usually by a broker who has purchased the shares in the open market local to the foreign company. A DR can represent a fraction of a share, a single share, or multiple shares of a foreign security. The holder of a DR has the right to obtain the underlying foreign security that the DR represents, but investors usually find it more convenient to own the DR. The price of a DR generally tracks the price of the foreign security in its home market, adjusted for the ratio of DRs to foreign company shares. In the case of companies domiciled in the United Kingdom, creation of ADRs attracts a 1.5% stamp duty reserve tax (SDRT) charge by the UK government. Depositary banks have various responsibilities to DR holders and to the issuing foreign company the DR represents. ADR programs (facilities) When a company establishes an ADR program, it must decide what exactly it wants out of the program, and how much time, effort, and other resources they are willing to commit. For this reason, there are different types of programs, or facilities, that a company can choose. Unsponsored ADRs Unsponsored shares trade on the over-the-counter (OTC) market. These shares are issued in accordance with market demand, and the foreign company has no formal agreement with a depositary bank. Unsponsored ADRs are often issued by more than one depositary bank. Each depositary services only the ADRs it has issued. Due to a recent SEC rule change making it easier to issue Level I depositary receipts, both sponsored and unsponsored, hundreds of new ADRs have been issued since the rule came into effect in October 2008. The majority of these were unsponsored Level I ADRs, and now approximately half of all ADR programs in existence are unsponsored. Sponsored Level I ADRs ("OTC" facility) Level 1 depositary receipts are the lowest level of sponsored ADRs that can be issued. When a company issues sponsored ADRs, it has one designated depositary who also acts as its transfer agent. A majority of American depositary receipt programs currently trading are issued through a Level 1 program. This is the most convenient way for a foreign company to have its equity traded in the United States. Level 1 shares can only be traded on the OTC market and the company has minimal reporting requirements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company is not required to issue quarterly or annual reports in compliance with U.S. GAAP. However, the company must have a security listed on one or more stock exchange in a foreign jurisdiction and must publish in English on its website its

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annual report in the form required by the laws of the country of incorporation, organization or domicile. Companies with shares trading under a Level 1 program may decide to upgrade their program to a Level 2 or Level 3 program for better exposure in the United States markets. Sponsored Level II ADRs ("Listing" facility) Level 2 depositary receipt programs are more complicated for a foreign company. When a foreign company wants to set up a Level 2 program, it must file a registration statement with the U.S. SEC and is under SEC regulation. In addition, the company is required to file a Form 20-F annually. Form 20-F is the basic equivalent of an annual report (Form 10-K) for a U.S. company. In their filings, the company is required to follow U.S. GAAP standards or IFRS as published by the IASB. The advantage that the company has by upgrading their program to Level 2 is that the shares can be listed on a U.S. stock exchange. These exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). While listed on these exchanges, the company must meet the exchanges listing requirements. If it fails to do so, it may be delisted and forced to downgrade its ADR program. Sponsored Level III ADRs ("offering" facility) A Level 3 American Depositary Receipt program is the highest level a foreign company can sponsor. Because of this distinction, the company is required to adhere to stricter rules that are similar to those followed by U.S. companies. Setting up a Level 3 program means that the foreign company is not only taking steps to permit shares from its home market to be deposited into an ADR program and traded in the U.S.; it is actually issuing shares to raise capital. In accordance with this offering, the company is required to file a Form F-1, which is the format for an Offering Prospectus for the shares. They also must file a Form 20-F annually and must adhere to U.S. GAAP standards or IFRS as published by the IASB. In addition, any material information given to shareholders in the home market, must be filed with the SEC through Form 6K. Foreign companies with Level 3 programs will often issue materials that are more informative and are more accommodating to their U.S. shareholders because they rely on them for capital. Overall, foreign companies with a Level 3 program set up are the easiest on which to find information. Examples include the British telecommunications company Vodafone (VOD), the Brazilian oil company Petrobras (PBR), and the Chinese technology company China Information Technology, Inc. (CNIT). Restricted Programs Foreign companies that want their stock to be limited to being traded by only certain individuals may set up a restricted program. There are two SEC rules that allow this type of issuance of shares in the U.S.: Rule 144-A and Regulation S. ADR programs operating under one of these 2 rules make up approximately 30% of all issued ADRs.

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Privately placed (SEC Rule 144A) ADRs Some foreign companies will set up an ADR program under SEC Rule 144A. This provision makes the issuance of shares a private placement. Shares of companies registered under Rule 144-A are restricted stock and may only be issued to or traded by Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs). US public shareholders are generally not permitted to invest in these ADR programs, and most are held exclusively through the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, so there is often very little information on these companies. The other way to restrict the trading of depositary shares to US public investors is to issue them under the terms of SEC Regulation S. This regulation means that the shares are not, and will not be registered with any United States securities regulation authority. Regulation S shares cannot be held or traded by any U.S. person as defined by SEC Regulation S rules. The shares are registered and issued to offshore, non-US residents. Regulation S ADRs can be merged into a Level 1 program after the restriction period has expired, and the foreign issuer elects to do this. Sourcing ADRs One can either source new ADRs by depositing the corresponding domestic shares of the company with the depositary bank that administers the ADR program or, instead, one can obtain existing ADRs in the secondary market. The latter can be achieved either by purchasing the ADRs on a US stock exchange or via purchasing the underlying domestic shares of the company on their primary exchange and then swapping them for ADRs; these swaps are called crossbook swaps and on many occasions account for the bulk of ADR secondary trading. This is especially true in the case of trading in ADRs of UK companies where creation of new ADRs attracts a 1.5% stamp duty reserve tax (SDRT) charge by the UK government; sourcing existing ADRs in the secondary market (either via crossbook swaps or on exchange) instead is not subject to SDRT. ADR termination Most ADR programs are subject to possible termination. Termination of the ADR agreement will result in cancellation of all the depositary receipts, and a subsequent delisting from all exchanges where they trade. The termination can be at the discretion of the foreign issuer or the depositary bank, but is typically at the request of the issuer. There may be a number of reasons why ADRs terminate, but in most cases the foreign issuer is undergoing some type of reorganization or merger. Owners of ADRs are typically notified in writing at least thirty days prior to a termination. Once notified, an owner can surrender their ADRs and take delivery of the foreign securities represented by the Receipt, or do nothing. If an ADR holder elects to take possession of the underlying foreign shares, there is no guarantee the shares will trade on any US exchange. The holder of the foreign shares would have to find a broker who has trading authority in the foreign market where those shares trade. If the owner continues to hold the ADR past the effective date of termination, the depositary

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bank will continue to hold the foreign deposited securities and collect dividends, but will cease distributions to ADR owners. Usually up to one year after the effective date of the termination, the depositary bank will liquidate and allocate the proceeds to those respective clients. Many US brokerages can continue to hold foreign stock, but may lack the ability to trade it overseas. Global depository receipt A global depository receipt or global depositary receipt (GDR) is a certificate issued by a depository bank, which purchases shares of foreign companies and deposits it on the account. GDRs represent ownership of an underlying number of shares. Global depository receipts facilitate trade of shares, and are commonly used to invest in companies from developing or emerging markets. Prices of global depositary receipt are often close to values of related shares, but they are traded and settled independently of the underlying share. Several international banks issue GDRs, such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Bank of New York. GDRs are often listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Luxembourg Stock Exchange and in the London Stock Exchange, where they are traded on the International Order Book (IOB). Normally 1 GDR = 10 Shares, but not always. It is negotiable instrument which is denominated in some freely convertible currency. It is a negotiable certificate denominated in US dollars which represents a NON-US Company's publicly traded local equity. Exchange-traded fund From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks.[1] An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds, and trades close to its net asset value over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index, such as the S&P 500 or MSCI EAFE. ETFs may be attractive as investments because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features.[2][3] ETFs are the most popular type of exchange-traded product.[citation needed] Only so-called authorized participants (typically, large institutional investors) actually buy or sell shares of an ETF directly from or to the fund manager, and then only in creation units, large blocks of tens of thousands of ETF shares, which are usually exchanged in-kind with baskets of the underlying securities. Authorized participants may wish to invest in the ETF shares for the long-term, but usually act as market makers on the open market, using their ability to exchange creation units with their underlying securities to provide liquidity of the ETF shares and help ensure that their intraday market price approximates to the net asset value of the underlying assets.[4] Other investors, such as individuals using a retail broker, trade ETF shares on this secondary market. An ETF combines the valuation feature of a mutual fund or unit investment trust, which can be bought or sold at the end of each trading day for its net asset value, with the tradability feature of a closed-end fund, which trades throughout the trading day 73

at prices that may be more or less than its net asset value. Closed-end funds are not considered to be "ETFs", even though they are funds and are traded on an exchange. ETFs have been available in the US since 1993 and in Europe since 1999. ETFs traditionally have been index funds, but in 2008 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began to authorize the creation of actively managed ETFs.[4] Contents 1 Structure 2 History 3 Investment uses 4 Types of ETFs 4.1 Index ETFs 4.2 Commodity ETFs or ETCs 4.3 Bond ETFs 4.4 Currency ETFs or ETCs 4.5 Actively managed ETFs 4.6 Exchange-traded grantor trusts 4.7 Leveraged ETFs 5 ETFs compared to mutual funds 5.1 Costs 5.2 Taxation 5.3 Trading 6 Criticism 7 Issuers of ETFs 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links Structure ;ETFs offer public investors an undivided interest in a pool of securities and other assets and thus are similar in many ways to traditional mutual funds, except that shares in an ETF can be bought and sold throughout the day like stocks on a securities exchange through a broker-dealer. Unlike traditional mutual funds, ETFs do not sell or redeem their individual shares at net asset value, or NAV. Instead, financial institutions purchase and redeem ETF shares directly from the ETF, but only in large blocks, varying in size by ETF from 25,000 to 200,000 shares, called "creation units". Purchases and redemptions of the creation units generally are in kind, with the institutional investor contributing or receiving a basket of securities of the same type and proportion held by the ETF, although some ETFs may require or permit a purchasing or redeeming shareholder to substitute cash for some or all of the securities in the basket of assets.[4] The ability to purchase and redeem creation units gives ETFs an arbitrage mechanism intended to minimize the potential deviation between the market price and the net asset value of ETF shares. Existing ETFs have transparent portfolios, so institutional 74

investors will know exactly what portfolio assets they must assemble if they wish to purchase a creation unit, and the exchange disseminates the updated net asset value of the shares throughout the trading day, typically at 15-second intervals.[4] If there is strong investor demand for an ETF, its share price will (temporarily) rise above its net asset value per share, giving arbitrageurs an incentive to purchase additional creation units from the ETF and sell the component ETF shares in the open market. The additional supply of ETF shares reduces the market price per share, generally eliminating the premium over net asset value. A similar process applies when there is weak demand for an ETF and its shares trade at a discount from net asset value. In the United States, most ETFs are structured as open-end management investment companies (the same structure used by mutual funds and money market funds), although a few ETFs, including some of the largest ones, are structured as unit investment trusts. ETFs structured as open-end funds have greater flexibility in constructing a portfolio and are not prohibited from participating in securities lending programs or from using futures and options in achieving their investment objectives.[5] Under existing regulations, a new ETF must receive an order from the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, giving it relief from provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940 that would not otherwise allow the ETF structure. In 2008, however, the SEC proposed rules that would allow the creation of ETFs without the need for exemptive orders. Under the SEC proposal, an ETF would be defined as a registered open-end management investment company that: Issues (or redeems) creation units in exchange for the deposit (or delivery) of basket assets the current value of which is disseminated per share by a national securities exchange at regular intervals during the trading day; Identifies itself as an ETF in any sales literature; Issues shares that are approved for listing and trading on a securities exchange; Discloses each business day on its publicly available web site the prior business day's net asset value and closing market price of the fund's shares, and the premium or discount of the closing market price against the net asset value of the fund's shares as a percentage of net asset value; and Either is an index fund, or discloses each business day on its publicly available web site the identities and weighting of the component securities and other assets held by the fund.[4] The SEC rule proposal would allow ETFs either to be index funds or to be fully transparent actively managed funds. Historically, all ETFs in the United States have been index funds. In 2008, however, the SEC began issuing exemptive orders to fully transparent actively managed ETFs. The first such order was to PowerShares Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Fund Trust,[6] and the first actively managed ETF in the United States was the Bear Stearns Current Yield Fund, a short-term income fund that began trading on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol YYY on 25 March 2008.[7] The SEC rule proposal indicates that the SEC may still consider future

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applications for exemptive orders for actively managed ETFs that do not satisfy the proposed rule's transparency requirements.[4] Some ETFs invest primarily in commodities or commodity-based instruments, such as crude oil and precious metals. Although these commodity ETFs are similar in practice to ETFs that invest in securities, they are not "investment companies" under the Investment Company Act of 1940.[4] Publicly traded grantor trusts, such as Merrill Lynch's HOLDRs securities, are sometimes considered to be ETFs, although they lack many of the characteristics of other ETFs. Investors in a grantor trust have a direct interest in the underlying basket of securities, which does not change except to reflect corporate actions such as stock splits and mergers. Funds of this type are not "investment companies" under the Investment Company Act of 1940.[8] As of 2009, there were approximately 1,500 exchange-traded funds traded on US exchanges.[9] This count uses the wider definition of ETF, including HOLDRs and closed-end funds. History ETFs had their genesis in 1989 with Index Participation Shares, an S&P 500 proxy that traded on the American Stock Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. This product, however, was short-lived after a lawsuit by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was successful in stopping sales in the United States.[10] A similar product, Toronto Index Participation Shares, started trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1990. The shares, which tracked the TSE 35 and later the TSE 100 stocks, proved to be popular. The popularity of these products led the American Stock Exchange to try to develop something that would satisfy SEC regulation in the United States.[10] Nathan Most and Steven Bloom, executives with the exchange, designed and developed Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts (NYSE: SPY), which were introduced in January 1993.[11][12] Known as SPDRs or "Spiders", the fund became the largest ETF in the world. In May 1995 they introduced the MidCap SPDRs (NYSE: MDY). Barclays Global Investors, a subsidiary of Barclays plc, entered the fray in 1996 with World Equity Benchmark Shares, or WEBS, subsequently renamed iShares MSCI Index Fund Shares. WEBS tracked MSCI country indices, originally 17, of the funds' index provider, Morgan Stanley. WEBS were particularly innovative because they gave casual investors easy access to foreign markets. While SPDRs were organized as unit investment trusts, WEBS were set up as a mutual fund, the first of their kind.[13][14] In 1998, State Street Global Advisors introduced the "Sector Spiders", which follow the nine sectors of the S&P 500.[15] Also in 1998, the "Dow Diamonds" (NYSE: DIA) were introduced, tracking the famous Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 1999, the influential "cubes" (NASDAQ: QQQQ) were launched attempting to replicate the movement of the NASDAQ-100. In 2000 Barclays Global Investors put a significant effort behind the ETF marketplace, with a strong emphasis on education and distribution to reach long-term investors.

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The iShares line was launched in early 2000. Within 5 years iShares had surpassed the assets of any other ETF competitor in the U.S. and Europe. Barclays Global Investors was sold to BlackRock in 2009. The Vanguard Group entered the market in 2001. Since then ETFs have proliferated, tailored to an increasingly specific array of regions, sectors, commodities, bonds, futures, and other asset classes. As of September 2010, there were 916 ETFs in the U.S., with $882 billion in assets, an increase of $189 billion over the previous twelve months.[16] Investment uses ETFs generally provide the easy diversification, low expense ratios, and tax efficiency of index funds, while still maintaining all the features of ordinary stock, such as limit orders, short selling, and options. Because ETFs can be economically acquired, held, and disposed of, some investors invest in ETF shares as a long-term investment for asset allocation purposes, while other investors trade ETF shares frequently to implement market timing investment strategies.[5] Among the advantages of ETFs are the following:[8][17] Lower costs ETFs generally have lower costs than other investment products because most ETFs are not actively managed and because ETFs are insulated from the costs of having to buy and sell securities to accommodate shareholder purchases and redemptions. ETFs typically have lower marketing, distribution and accounting expenses, and most ETFs do not have 12b-1 fees. Buying and selling flexibility ETFs can be bought and sold at current market prices at any time during the trading day, unlike mutual funds and unit investment trusts, which can only be traded at the end of the trading day. As publicly traded securities, their shares can be purchased on margin and sold short, enabling the use of hedging strategies, and traded using stop orders and limit orders, which allow investors to specify the price points at which they are willing to trade. Tax efficiency ETFs generally generate relatively low capital gains, because they typically have low turnover of their portfolio securities. While this is an advantage they share with other index funds, their tax efficiency is further enhanced because they do not have to sell securities to meet investor redemptions. Market exposure and diversification ETFs provide an economical way to rebalance portfolio allocations and to "equitize" cash by investing it quickly. An index ETF inherently provides diversification across an entire index. ETFs offer exposure to a diverse variety of markets, including broad-based indices, broad-based international and country-specific indices, industry sector-specific indices, bond indices, and commodities. Transparency ETFs, whether index funds or actively managed, have transparent portfolios and are priced at frequent intervals throughout the trading day. Some of these advantages derive from the status of most ETFs as index funds. Types of ETFs

For more details on this topic, see List of American exchange-traded funds.
Index ETFs

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Most ETFs are index funds that hold securities and attempt to replicate the performance of a stock market index. An index fund seeks to track the performance of an index by holding in its portfolio either the contents of the index or a representative sample of the securities in the index.[5] Some index ETFs, known as leveraged ETFs or inverse ETFs, use investments in derivatives to seek a return that corresponds to a multiple of, or the inverse (opposite) of, the daily performance of the index.[18] As of February 2008, index ETFs in the United States included 415 domestic equity ETFs, with assets of $350 billion; 160 global/international equity ETFs, with assets of $169 billion; and 53 bond ETFs, with assets of $40 billion.[19] As of November 2010 an index ETF, namely Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts (SPDR S&P 500), was the largest ETF by market capitalization.[20] Some index ETFs invest 100% of their assets proportionately in the securities underlying an index, a manner of investing called "replication". Other index ETFs use "representative sampling", investing 80% to 95% of their assets in the securities of an underlying index and investing the remaining 5% to 20% of their assets in other holdings, such as futures, option and swap contracts, and securities not in the underlying index, that the fund's adviser believes will help the ETF to achieve its investment objective. For index ETFs that invest in indices with thousands of underlying securities, some index ETFs employ "aggressive sampling" and invest in only a tiny percentage of the underlying securities.[21][22] Commodity ETFs or ETCs Commodity ETFs (ETCs or CETFs) invest in commodities, such as precious metals and futures. Among the first commodity ETFs were gold exchange-traded funds, which have been offered in a number of countries. The idea of a Gold ETF was first officially conceptualised by Benchmark Asset Management Company Private Ltd in India when they filed a proposal with the SEBI in May 2002.[23] The first gold exchange-traded fund was Gold Bullion Securities launched on the ASX in 2003, and the first silver exchange-traded fund was iShares Silver Trust launched on the NYSE in 2006. As of November 2010 a commodity ETF, namely SPDR Gold Shares, was the second-largest ETF by market capitalization.[20] However, generally commodity ETFs are index funds tracking non-security indices. Because they do not invest in securities, commodity ETFs are not regulated as investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940 in the United States, although their public offering is subject to SEC review and they need an SEC noaction letter under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. They may, however, be subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.[24][25] Exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) are investment vehicles (asset backed bonds, fully collateralised) that track the performance of an underlying commodity index including total return indices based on a single commodity. Similar to ETFs and traded and settled exactly like normal shares on their own dedicated segment, ETCs have market maker support with guaranteed liquidity, enabling investors to gain exposure to commodities, on-Exchange, during market hours.

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The earliest commodity ETFs (e.g., GLD and SLV) actually owned the physical commodity (e.g., gold and silver bars). Similar to these are NYSE: PALL (palladium) and NYSE: PPLT (platinum). However, most ETCs implement a futures trading strategy, which may produce quite different results from owning the commodity. Commodity ETFs trade just like shares, are simple and efficient and provide exposure to an ever-increasing range of commodities and commodity indices, including energy, metals, softs and agriculture. However, it is important for an investor to realize that there are often other factors that affect the price of a commodity ETF that might not be immediately apparent. For example, buyers of an oil ETF such as USO might think that as long as oil goes up, they will profit roughly linearly. What isn't clear to the novice investor is the method by which these funds gain exposure to their underlying commodities. In the case of many commodity funds, they simply roll so-called frontmonth futures contracts from month to month. This does give exposure to the commodity, but subjects the investor to risks involved in different prices along the term

structure, such as a high cost to roll.[26][27]

Bond ETFs Exchange-traded funds that invest in bonds are known as bond ETFs. They thrive during economic recessions because investors pull their money out of the stock market and into bonds (for example, government treasury bonds or those issues by companies regarded as financially stable). Because of this cause and effect relationship, the performance of bond ETFs may be indicative of broader economic conditions.[28] There are several advantages to bond ETFs such as the reasonable trading commissions, but this benefit can be negatively offset by fees if bought and sold through a third party.[29] [Currency ETFs or ETCs In 2005, Rydex Investments launched the first ever currency ETF called the Euro Currency Trust (NYSE: FXE) in New York. Since then Rydex has launched a series of funds tracking all major currencies under their brand CurrencyShares. In 2007 Deutsche Bank's db x-trackers launched EONIA Total Return Index ETF in Frankfurt tracking the euro, and later in 2008 the Sterling Money Market ETF (LSE: XGBP) and US Dollar Money Market ETF (LSE: XUSD) in London. In 2009, ETF Securities launched the world's largest FX platform tracking the MSFXSM Index covering 18 long or short USD ETC vs. single G10 currencies. The funds are total return products where the investor gets access to the FX spot change, local institutional interest rates and a collateral yield. Actively managed ETFs Actively managed ETFs (AMETFs) are quite recent in the United States. The first one was offered in March 2008 but was liquidated in October 2008. The actively managed ETFs approved to date are fully transparent, publishing their current securities portfolios on their web sites daily. However, the SEC has indicated that it is willing to consider allowing actively managed ETFs that are not fully transparent in the future.[4] The fully transparent nature of existing ETFs means that an actively managed ETF is at risk from arbitrage activities by market participants who might choose to front run

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its trades[citation needed]. The initial actively traded equity ETFs have addressed this problem by trading only weekly or monthly, however today, actively managed ETFs trade at the discretion of the manager and to date, there have been no instance of front running. Actively traded debt ETFs, which are less susceptible to front-running, trade their holdings more frequently.[30] Actively managed ETFs have grown faster in their first 3 years of existence than index ETF did in their first 3 year of existence. However, as track records develop, many see actively managed ETF as a significant competitive threat to actively managed mutual funds.
[31]

Exchange-traded grantor trusts An exchange-traded grantor trust share represents a direct interest in a static basket of stocks selected from a particular industry. The leading example is Holding Company Depositary Receipts, or HOLDRs, a proprietary Merrill Lynch product. HOLDRs are neither index funds nor actively managed; rather, the investor has a direct interest in specific underlying stocks. While HOLDRs have some qualities in common with ETFs, including low costs, low turnover, and tax efficiency, many observers consider HOLDRs to be a separate product from ETFs.[8] Leveraged ETFs Leveraged exchange-traded funds (LETFs), or simply leveraged ETFs, are a special type of ETF that attempt to achieve returns that are more sensitive to market movements than non-leveraged ETFs.[33] Leveraged index ETFs are often marketed as bull or bear funds. A leveraged bull ETF fund might for example attempt to achieve daily returns that are 2x or 3x more pronounced than the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500. A leveraged inverse (bear) ETF fund on the other hand may attempt to achieve returns that are -2x or -3x the daily index return, meaning that it will gain double or triple the loss of the market. Leveraged ETFs require the use of financial engineering techniques, including the use of equity swaps, derivatives and rebalancing to achieve the desired return.[34] The most common way to construct leveraged ETFs is by trading futures contracts. The rebalancing of leveraged ETFs may have considerable costs when markets are volatile.[35][36] The problem is that the fund manager incurs trading losses because he needs to buy when the index goes up and sell when the index goes down in order to maintain a fixed leverage ratio. A 2.5% daily change in the index will for example reduce value of a -2x bear fund by about 0.18% per day, which means that about a third of the fund may be wasted in trading losses within a year(0.9982^252=0.63). Investors may however circumvent this problem by buying or writing futures directly, accepting a varying leverage ratio.[37] A more reasonable estimate of daily market changes is 0.5%, which leads to a 2.6% yearly loss of principal in a 3x leveraged fund.[citation needed] ETFs compared to mutual funds [Costs
[32]

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Because ETFs trade on an exchange, each transaction is generally subject to a brokerage commission. Commissions depend on the brokerage and which plan is chosen by the customer. For example, a typical flat fee schedule from an online brokerage firm in the United States range from $10 to $20, but can be as low as $0 with discount brokers. Due to this commission cost, the amount invested has a great bearing; someone who wishes to invest $100 per month may have a significant percentage of their investment destroyed immediately, while for someone making a $200,000 investment, the commission cost may be negligible. Generally, mutual funds obtained directly from the fund company itself do not charge a brokerage fee. Thus when low or no-cost transactions are available, ETFs become very competitive.[38] ETFs have a lower expense ratio than comparable mutual funds. Not only does an ETF have lower shareholder-related expenses, but because it does not have to invest cash contributions or fund cash redemptions, an ETF does not have to maintain a cash reserve for redemptions and saves on brokerage expenses.[39] Mutual funds can charge 1% to 3%, or more; index fund expense ratios are generally lower, while ETFs are almost always in the 0.1% to 1% range. Over the long term, these cost differences can compound into a noticeable difference.[40] The cost difference is more evident when compared with mutual funds that charge a front-end or back-end load as ETFs do not have loads at all. The redemption fee and short-term trading fees are examples of other fees associated with mutual funds that do not exist with ETFs. Traders should be cautious if they plan to trade inverse and leveraged ETFs for short periods of time. Close attention should be paid to transaction costs and daily performance rates as the potential combined compound loss can sometimes go unrecognized and offset potential gains over a longer period of time.[41] Taxation ETFs are structured for tax efficiency and can be more attractive than mutual funds. In the U.S., whenever a mutual fund realizes a capital gain that is not balanced by a realized loss, the mutual fund must distribute the capital gains to its shareholders. This can happen whenever the mutual fund sells portfolio securities, whether to reallocate its investments or to fund shareholder redemptions. These gains are taxable to all shareholders, even those who reinvest the gains distributions in more shares of the fund. In contrast, ETFs are not redeemed by holders (instead, holders simply sell their ETF shares on the stock market, as they would a stock, or effect a non-taxable redemption of a creation unit for portfolio securities), so that investors generally only realize capital gains when they sell their own shares or when the ETF trades to reflect changes in the underlying index.[5] In most cases, ETFs are more tax-efficient than conventional mutual funds in the same asset classes or categories.[42] Because Vanguard's ETFs are a share-class of their mutual funds, they don't get all the tax advantages if there are net redemptions on the mutual fund shares.[43] Although they do not get all the tax advantages, they get an additional advantage from tax loss harvesting any capital losses from net redemptions.[44][45]

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In the U.K., ETFs can be shielded from capital gains tax by placing them in an Individual Savings Account or self-invested personal pension, in the same manner as many other shares. Because UK-resident ETFs would be liable for UK corporation tax on non-UK dividends, most ETFs which hold non-UK companies sold to UK investors are issued in Ireland or Luxembourg.[46] Trading Perhaps the most important benefit of an ETF is the stock-like features offered. Since ETFs trade on the market, investors can carry out the same types of trades that they can with a stock. For instance, investors can sell short, use a limit order, use a stop-loss order, buy on margin, and invest as much or as little money as they wish (there is no minimum investment requirement).[47] Also, many ETFs have the capability for options (puts and calls) to be written against them. Covered call strategies allow investors and traders to potentially increase their returns on their ETF purchases by collecting premiums (the proceeds of a call sale or write) on calls written against them. Mutual funds do not offer those features.[48] Criticism John C. Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, a leading issuer of index mutual funds (and, since Bogle's retirement, of ETFs), has argued that ETFs represent short-term speculation, that their trading expenses decrease returns to investors, and that most ETFs provide insufficient diversification. He concedes that a broadly diversified ETF that is held over time can be a good investment.[49] ETFs are dependent on the efficacy of the arbitrage mechanism in order for their share price to track net asset value. While the average deviation between the daily closing price and the daily NAV of ETFs that track domestic indices is generally less than 2%, the deviations may be more significant for ETFs that track certain foreign indices.[5] The Wall Street Journal reported in November 2008, during a period of market turbulence, that some lightly traded ETFs frequently had deviations of 5% or more, exceeding 10% in a handful of cases, although even for these niche ETFs, the average deviation was only a little more than 1%. The trades with the greatest deviations tended to be made immediately after the market opened.[50] According to a study on ETF returns in 2009 by Morgan Stanley, ETFs missed in 2009 their targets by an average of 1.25 percentage points, a gap more than twice as wide as the 0.52-percentage-point average they posted in 2008.[51] Part of this so-called tracking error is attributed to the proliferation of ETFs targeting exotic investments or areas where trading is less frequent, such as emerging-market stocks, future-contracts based commodity indices and junk bonds.[citation needed] The tax advantages of ETFs are of no relevance for investors using tax-deferred accounts (or indeed, investors who are tax-exempt in the first place).[52] However, the lower expense ratios are proving difficult for the proponents of traditional mutual funds to overcome.

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In a survey of investment professionals, the most frequently cited disadvantage of ETFs was the unknown, untested indices used by many ETFs, followed by the overwhelming number of choices.[3] Some critics claim that ETFs can be, and have been, used to manipulate market prices, including having been used for short selling that has been asserted by some observers (including Jim Cramer of theStreet.com) to have contributed to the market collapse of 2008. What is a Mutual Fund ? Mutual Fund is a trust that pools the savings of a number of investors who share a common financial goal. Each scheme of a mutual fund can have different character and objectives. Mutual funds issue units to the investors, which represent an equitable right in the assets of the mutual fund. What is the difference between an open ended and close ended scheme? Open ended funds can issue and redeem units any time during the life of the scheme while close ended funds can not issue new units except in case of bonus or rights issue. Hence, unit capital of open ended funds can fluctuate on daily basis while that is not the case for close ended schemes. Other way of explaining the difference is that new investors can join the scheme by directly applying to the mutual fund at applicable net asset value related prices in case of open ended schemes while that is not the case in case of close ended schemes. New investors can buy the units from secondary market only. How are mutual funds different from portfolio management schemes? In case of mutual funds, the investments of different investors are pooled to form a common investible corpus and gain/loss to all investors during a given period are same for all investors while in case of portfolio management scheme, the investments of a particular investor remains identifiable to him. Here the gain or loss of all the investors will be different from each other. What does Net Asset Value (NAV) of a scheme signify and what is the basis of its calculation? Net asset value on a particular date reflects the realisable value that the investor will get for each unit that he his holding if the scheme is liquidated on that date. It is calculated by deducting all liabilities (except unit capital) of the fund from the realisable value of all assets and dividing by number of units outstanding. Can I get fixed monthly income by investing in mutual fund units? Yes, there are a number of mutual fund schemes which give you fixed monthly income. Further, you can also get monthly income by making a single investment in an open ended scheme and redeeming fix value of units at regular intervals. What are the tax benefits for investing in mutual fund units? Dividend income from mutual fund units will be exempt from income tax with effect from July 1, 1999. Further, investors can get rebate from tax under section

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88 of Income Tax Act, 1961 by investing in Equity Linked Saving Schemes of mutual funds. Further benefits are also available under section 54EA and 54EB with regard to relief from long term capital gains tax in certain specified schemes. As my dividend receipts from mutual fund units were tax free under section 80 L, will I loose because of the new budget provision whereby my mutual fund will pay 10% tax on total dividend distributed and indirectly even I will end up paying the tax? The above statement is partially true. 10% tax on dividend paid is not applicable for funds which have invested more than 50% in equity for next three years. Hence, if you have invested in an equity scheme, you will not loose out for the time being. However, in case of debt funds, your statement is true. Are investments in mutual fund units safe? No stock market related investments can be termed safe with certainty as they are inherently risky. However, different funds have different risk profile which is stated in its objective. Funds which categorize themselves as low risk, invest generally in debt which is less risky than equity. Anyway, as mutual funds have access to services of expert fund managers, they are always safer than direct investment in the stock markets. How do I find out about a scheme which suits my individual requirements? You have to define your individual requirements and then simply go to Choose a Scheme icon on the home page of this web site. You can select your defined parameters and get a list of schemes which would fit the needs. As mutual fund schemes invest in stock markets only, are they suitable for a small investor like me? Mutual funds are meant only for a small investor like you. The prime reason is that successful investments in stock markets require careful analysis of scrips which is not possible for a small investor. Mutual funds are usually fully equipped to carry out thorough analysis and can provide superior returns.

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Mutual fund
A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, shortterm money market instruments, and/or other securities.[1]

Overview
In the United States, a mutual fund is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is overseen by a board of directors (if organized as a corporation) or board of trustees (if organized as a trust). The board is charged with ensuring that the fund is managed in the best interests of the fund's investors and with hiring the fund manager and other service providers to the fund. The fund manager, also known as the fund sponsor or fund management company, trades (buys and sells) the fund's investments in accordance with the fund's investment objective. A fund manager must be a registered investment advisor. Funds that are managed by the same fund manager and that have the same brand name are known as a "fund family" or "fund complex". The Investment Company Act of 1940 (the 1940 Act) established three types of registered investment companies or RICs in the United States: open-end funds, unit investment trusts (UITs); and closed-end funds. Recently, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are open-end funds or unit investment trusts that trade on an exchange, have gained in popularity. While the term "mutual fund" may refer to all three types of registered investment companies, it is more commonly used to refer exclusively to the open-end type. Hedge funds are not considered a type of mutual fund. While they are another type of commingled investment scheme, they are not governed by the Investment Company Act of 1940 and are not required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (though many hedge fund managers now must register as investment advisors). Mutual funds are not taxed on their income as long as they comply with certain requirements established in the Internal Revenue Code. Specifically, they must diversify their investments, limit ownership of voting securities, distribute most of their income to their investors annually, and earn most of the income by investing in securities and currencies.[2] Mutual funds pass taxable income on to their investors. The type of income they earn is unchanged as it passes through to the shareholders. For example, mutual fund distributions of dividend income
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are reported as dividend income by the investor. There is an exception: net losses incurred by a mutual fund are not distributed or passed through to fund investors. Outside of the United States, mutual fund is used as a generic term for various types of collective investment vehicles available to the general public, such as unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, unitized insurance funds, Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities, and SICAVs.

Advantages
Mutual funds have advantages compared to direct investing in individual securities.[3] These include: Increased diversification Daily liquidity Professional investment management Ability to participate in investments that may be available only to larger investors Service and convenience Government oversight Ease of comparison

Disadvantages
Mutual funds have disadvantages as well, which include[4]: Fees Less control over timing of recognition of gains Less predictable income No opportunity to customize

History
The first mutual funds were established in Europe. One researcher credits a Dutch merchant with creating the first mutual fund in 1774.[5] The first mutual fund outside the Netherlands was the Foreign & Colonial Government Trust, which was established in London in 1868. It is now the Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust and trades on the London stock exchange.[6] Mutual funds were introduced into the United States in the 1890s.[7] They became popular during the 1920s. These early funds were generally of the closed-end type with a fixed number of shares which often traded at prices above the value of the portfolio.[8] The first open-end mutual fund with redeemable shares was established on March 21, 1924. This fund, the Massachusetts Investors Trust, is now
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part of the MFS family of funds. However, closed-end funds remained more popular than open-end funds throughout the 1920s. By 1929, open-end funds accounted for only 5% of the industry's $27 billion in total assets.[9] After the stock market crash of 1929, Congress passed a series of acts regulating the securities markets in general and mutual funds in particular. The Securities Act of 1933 requires that all investments sold to the public, including mutual funds, be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and that they provide prospective investors with a prospectus that discloses essential facts about the investment. The Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 requires that issuers of securities, including mutual funds, report regularly to their investors; this act also created the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the principal regulator of mutual funds. The Revenue Act of 1936 established guidelines for the taxation of mutual funds, while the Investment Company Act of 1940 governs their structure. When confidence in the stock market returned in the 1950s, the mutual fund industry began to grow again. By 1970, there were approximately 360 funds with $48 billion in assets.[10] The introduction of money market funds in the high interest rate environment of the late 1970s boosted industry growth dramatically. The first retail index fund, First Index Investment Trust, was formed in 1976 by The Vanguard Group, headed by John Bogle; it is now called the Vanguard 500 Index Fund and is one of the world's largest mutual funds, with more than $100 billion in assets as of January 31, 2011.[11] Fund industry growth continued into the 1980s and 1990s, as a result of three factors: a bull market for both stocks and bonds, new product introductions (including tax-exempt bond, sector, international and target date funds) and wider distribution of fund shares.[12] Among the new distribution channels were retirement plans. Mutual funds are now the preferred investment option in certain types of fast-growing retirement plans, specifically in 401(k) and other defined contribution plans and in individual retirement accounts (IRAs), all of which surged in popularity in the 1980s. Total mutual fund assets fell in 2008 as a result of the credit crisis of 2008. In 2003, the mutual fund industry was involved in a scandal involving unequal treatment of fund shareholders. Some fund management companies allowed favored investors to engage in late trading, which is illegal, or market timing, which is a practice prohibited by fund policy.
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The scandal was initially discovered by then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and resulted in significantly increased regulation of the industry. At the end of 2010, there were 7,581 mutual funds in the United States with combined assets of $11.8 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute (ICI), a national trade association of investment companies in the United States. The ICI reports that worldwide mutual fund assets were $24.7 trillion on the same date.[13]

Leading complexes
At the end of October 2011, the top 10 mutual fund complexes in the United States were:[14] Vanguard Fidelity American Funds (Capital Research) BlackRock PIMCO Franklin Templeton JPMorgan SSgA T. Rowe Price Federated

Types
There are three basic types of registered investment companies defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940: open-end funds, unit investment trusts, and closed-end funds. Exchange-traded funds are open-end funds or unit investment trusts that trade on an exchange.

Open-end funds
Open-end mutual funds must be willing to buy back their shares from their investors at the end of every business day at the net asset value computed that day. Most open-end funds also sell shares to the public every business day; these shares are also priced at net asset value. A professional investment manager oversees the portfolio, buying and selling securities as appropriate. The total investment in the fund will vary based on share purchases, share redemptions and fluctuation in market valuation. There is no legal limit on the number of shares that can be issued.

Closed-end funds

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Closed-end funds generally issue shares to the public only once, when they are created through an initial public offering. Their shares are then listed for trading on a stock exchange. Investors who no longer wish to invest in the fund cannot sell their shares back to the fund (as they can with an open-end fund). Instead, they must sell their shares to another investor in the market; the price they receive may be significantly different from net asset value. It may be at a "premium" to net asset value (meaning that it is higher than net asset value) or, more commonly, at a "discount" to net asset value (meaning that it is lower than net asset value). A professional investment manager oversees the portfolio, buying and selling securities as appropriate.

Unit investment trusts

Unit investment trusts or UITs issue shares to the public only once, when they are created. Investors can redeem shares directly with the fund (as with an open-end fund) or they may also be able to sell their shares in the market. Unit investment trusts do not have a professional investment manager. Their portfolio of securities is established at the creation of the UIT and does not change. UITs generally have a limited life span, established at creation.

Exchange-traded funds
Main article: Exchange-traded fund
A relatively recent innovation, the exchange-traded fund or ETF is often structured as an open-end investment company, though ETFs may also be structured as unit investment trusts, partnerships, investments trust, grantor trusts or bonds (as an exchange-traded note). ETFs combine characteristics of both closed-end funds and open-end funds. Like closedend funds, ETFs are traded throughout the day on a stock exchange at a price determined by the market. However, as with open-end funds, investors normally receive a price that is close to net asset value. To keep the market price close to net asset value, ETFs issue and redeem large blocks of their shares with institutional investors. Most ETFs are index funds.

Investments and classification

Mutual funds may invest in many kinds of securities. The types of securities that a particular fund may invest in are set forth in the fund's prospectus, which describes the fund's investment objective, investment approach and permitted investments. The investment objective describes the type of income that the fund seeks. For example, a "capital
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appreciation" fund generally looks to earn most of its returns from increases in the prices of the securities it holds, rather than from dividend or interest income. The investment approach describes the criteria that the fund manager uses to select investments for the fund. A mutual fund's investment portfolio is continually monitored by the fund's portfolio manager or managers, who are employed by the fund's manager or sponsor. Mutual funds are classified by their principal investments. The four largest categories of funds are money market funds, bond or fixed income funds, stock or equity funds and hybrid funds. Within these categories, funds may be subclassified by investment objective, investment approach or specific focus. The SEC requires that mutual fund names not be inconsistent with a fund's investments. For example, the "ABC New Jersey Tax-Exempt Bond Fund" would generally have to invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets in bonds that are exempt from federal income tax, from the alternative minimum tax and from taxes in the state of New Jersey.[15] Bond, stock and hybrid funds may be classified as either index (passively-managed) funds or actively-managed funds.

Money market funds

Money market funds invest in money market instruments, which are fixed income securities with a very short time to maturity and high credit quality. Investors often use money market funds as a substitute for bank savings accounts, though money market funds are not government insured, unlike bank savings accounts. Money market funds strive to maintain a $1.00 per share net asset value, meaning that investors earn interest income from the fund but do not experience capital gains or losses. If a fund fails to maintain that $1.00 per share because its securities have declined in value, it is said to "break the buck". Only two money market funds have ever broken the buck: Community Banker's U.S. Government Money Market Fund in 1994 and the Reserve Primary Fund in 2008. At the end of 2010, money market funds accounted for 24% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds.[13]

Bond funds
Bond funds invest in fixed income securities. Bond funds can be subclassified according to the specific types of bonds owned (such as highyield or junk bonds, investment-grade corporate bonds, government bonds

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or municipal bonds) or by the maturity of the bonds held (short-, intermediate- or long-term). Bond funds may invest in primarily U.S. securities (domestic or U.S. funds), in both U.S. and foreign securities (global or world funds), or primarily foreign securities (international funds). At the end of 2010, bond funds accounted for 22% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds.[13]

Stock or equity funds

Stock or equity funds invest in common stocks. Stock funds may invest in primarily U.S. securities (domestic or U.S. funds), in both U.S. and foreign securities (global or world funds), or primarily foreign securities (international funds). They may focus on a specific industry or sector. A stock fund may be subclassified along two dimensions: (1) market capitalization and (2) investment style (i.e., growth vs. blend/core vs. value). The two dimensions are often displayed in a grid known as a "style box." Market capitalization or market cap indicates the size of the companies a fund invests in, based on the value of the company's stock. Each company's market capitalization equals the number of shares outstanding times the market price of the stock. Market capitalizations are typically divided into the following categories: Micro cap Small cap Mid cap Large cap While the specific definitions of each category vary with market conditions, large cap stocks generally have market capitalizations of at least $10 billion, small cap stocks have market capitalizations below $2 billion, and micro cap stocks have market capitalizations below $300 million. Funds are also classified in these categories based on the market caps of the stocks that it holds. Stock funds are also subclassified according to their investment style: growth, value or blend (or core). Growth funds seek to invest in stocks of fast-growing companies. Value funds seek to invest in stocks that appear cheaply priced. Blend funds are not biased toward either growth or value. At the end of 2010, stock funds accounted for 48% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds.[13]

Hybrid funds

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Hybrid funds invest in both bonds and stocks or in convertible securities. Balanced funds, asset allocation funds, target date or target risk funds and lifecycle or lifestyle funds are all types of hybrid funds. Hybrid funds may be structured as funds of funds, meaning that they invest by buying shares in other mutual funds that invest in securities. Most fund of funds invest in affiliated funds (meaning mutual funds managed by the same fund sponsor), although some invest in unaffiliated funds (meaning those managed by other fund sponsors) or in a combination of the two. At the end of 2010, hybrid funds accounted for 6% of the assets in all U.S. mutual funds.[13]

Index (passively-managed) versus actively-managed

Main articles: Index fund and active management
An index fund or passively-managed fund seeks to match the performance of a market index, such as the S&P 500 index, while an actively managed fund seeks to outperform a relevant index through superior security selection.

Expenses
Investors in mutual funds pay fees. These fall into four categories: distribution charges (sales loads and 12b-1 fees), the management fee, other fund expenses, shareholder transaction fees and securities transaction fees. Some of these expenses reduce the value of an investor's account; others are paid by the fund and reduce net asset value. Recurring expenses are included in a fund's expense ratio.

Distribution charges
Main article: Mutual fund fees and expenses
Distribution charges pay for marketing and distribution of the fund's shares to investors. Front-end load or sales charge A front-end load or sales charge is a commission paid to a broker by a mutual fund when shares are purchased. It is expressed as a percentage of the total amount invested (including the front-end load), known as the "public offering price." The front-end load often declines as the amount invested increases, through breakpoints. Front-end loads are deducted from an investor's account and reduce the amount invested. Back-end load Some funds have a back-end load, which is paid by the investor when shares are redeemed depending on how long they are held. The back-end
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loads may decline the longer the investor holds shares. Back-end loads with this structure are called contingent deferred sales charges (or CDSCs). Like front-end loads, back-end loads are deducted from an investor's account. No-load funds A no-load fund does not charge a front-end load under any circumstances, does not charge a back-end load under any circumstances and does not charge a 12b-1 fee greater than 0.25% of fund assets. Share classes A single mutual fund may give investors a choice of different combinations of front-end loads, back-end loads and 12b-1 fees, by offering several different types of shares, known as share classes. All of the shares classes invest in the same portfolio of securities, but each has different expenses and, therefore, a different net asset value and different performance results. Some of these share classes may be available only to certain types of investors. Typical share classes for funds sold through brokers or other intermediaries are: Class A shares usually charge a front-end sales load together with a small 12b-1 fee. Class B shares don't have a front-end sales load. Instead they, have a high contingent deferred sales charge, or CDSC that declines gradually over several years, combined with a high 12b-1 fee. Class B shares usually convert automatically to Class A shares after they have been held for a certain period. Class C shares have a high 12b-1 fee and a modest contingent deferred sales charge that is discontinued after one or two years. Class C shares usually do not convert to another class. They are often called "level load" shares. Class I are subject to very high minimum investment requirements and are, therefore, known as "institutional" shares. They are no-load shares. Class R are for use in retirement plans such as 401(k) plans. They do not charge loads, but do charge a small 12b-1 fee. No-load funds often have two classes of shares: Class I shares do not charge a 12b-1 fee. Class N shares charge a 12b-1 fee of no more than 0.25% of fund assets. Neither class of shares charges a front-end or back-end load.

Management fee

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The management fee is paid to the fund manager or sponsor who organizes the fund, provides the portfolio management or investment advisory services and normally lends its brand name to the fund. The fund manager may also provide other administrative services. The management fee often has breakpoints, which means that it declines as assets (in either the specific fund or in the fund family as a whole) increase. The management fee is paid by the fund and is included in the expense ratio.

Other fund expenses

A mutual fund pays for other services including: Board of directors' (or board of trustees') fees and expenses Custody fee: paid to a bank for holding the fund's portfolio in safekeeping Fund accounting fee: for computing the net asset value daily Professional services fees: legal and accounting fees Registration fees: when making filings with regulatory agencies Shareholder communications expenses: printing and mailing required documents to shareholders Transfer agent services fee: keeping shareholder records and responding to customer inquiries These expenses are included in the expense ratio.

Shareholder transaction fees

Shareholders may be required to pay fees for certain transactions. For example, a fund may charge a flat fee for maintaining an individual retirement account for an investor. Some funds charge redemption fees when an investor sells fund shares shortly after buying them (usually defined as within 30, 60 or 90 days of purchase); redemption fees are computed as a percentage of the sale amount. Shareholder transaction fees are not part of the expense ratio.

Securities transaction fees

A mutual fund pays any expenses related to buying or selling the securities in its portfolio. These expenses may include brokerage commissions. Securities transaction fees increase the cost basis of the investments. They do not flow through the income statement and are not included in the expense ratio. The amount of securities transaction fees paid by a fund is normally positively correlated with its trading volume or "turnover".

Expense ratio
The expense ratio allows investors to compare expenses across funds. The expense ratio equals the 12b-1 fee plus the management fee plus the other

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fund expenses divided by average net assets. The expense ratio is sometimes referred to as the "total expense ratio" or TER.

Controversy
Critics of the fund industry argue that fund expenses are too high. They believe that the market for mutual funds is not competitive and that there are many hidden fees, so that it is difficult for investors to reduce the fees that they pay. Many researchers have suggested that the most effective way for investors to raise the returns they earn from mutual funds is to reduce the fees that they pay. They suggest that investors look for no-load funds with low expense ratios.

Definitions
Definitions of key terms.

Net asset value or NAV

Main article: Net asset value
A fund's net asset value or NAV equals the current market value of a fund's holdings minus the fund's liabilities (sometimes referred to as "net assets"). It is usually expressed as a per-share amount, computed by dividing by the number of fund shares outstanding. Funds must compute their net asset value every day the New York Stock Exchange is open. Valuing the securities held in a fund's portfolio is often the most difficult part of calculating net asset value. The fund's board of directors (or board of trustees) oversees security valuation.

Average annual total return

The SEC requires that mutual funds report the average annual compounded rates of return for 1-year, 5-year and 10-year periods using the following formula:[16] P(1+T)n = ERV Where: P = a hypothetical initial payment of $1,000. T = average annual total return. n = number of years. ERV = ending redeemable value of a hypothetical $1,000 payment made at the beginning of the 1-, 5-, or 10-year periods at the end of the 1-, 5, or 10-year periods (or fractional portion).

Turnover
Turnover is a measure of the volume of a fund's securities trading. It is
expressed as a percentage of net asset value and is normally annualized.
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Turnover equals the lesser of a fund's purchases or sales during a given period (of no more than a year) divided by average net assets. If the period is less than a year, the turnover figure is annualized. Module :3

Derivative (finance)
A derivative instrument is a contract between two parties that specifies conditions (especially the dates, resulting values of the underlying variables, and notional amounts) under which payments, or payoffs, are to be made between the parties.[1][2] Under US law and the laws of most other developed countries, derivatives have special legal exemptions that make them a particularly attractive legal form through which to extend credit.[3] However, the strong creditor protections afforded to derivatives counterparties, in combination with their complexity and lack of transparency, can cause capital markets to underprice credit risk. This can contribute to credit booms, and increase systemic risks.[3] Indeed, the use of derivatives to mask credit risk from third parties while protecting derivative counterparties contributed to both the financial crisis of 2008 in the United States and the European sovereign debt crises in Greece and Italy.[3][4] Financial reforms within the US since the financial crisis have served only to reinforce special protections for derivatives, including greater access to government guarantees, while minimizing disclosure to broader financial markets.[5] One of the oldest derivatives is rice futures, which have been traded on the Dojima Rice Exchange since the eighteenth century.[6] Derivatives are broadly categorized by the relationship between the underlying asset and the derivative (such as forward, option, swap); the type of underlying asset (such as equity derivatives, foreign exchange derivatives, interest rate derivatives, commodity derivatives, or credit derivatives); the market in which they trade (such as exchange-traded or over-the-counter); and their pay-off profile. Derivatives can be used for speculating purposes ("bets") or to hedge ("insurance"). For example, a speculator may sell deep in-the-money naked calls on a stock, expecting the stock price to plummet, but exposing himself to potentially unlimited losses. Very commonly, companies buy currency forwards in order to limit losses due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of two currencies. Third parties can use publicly available derivatives prices as educated
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predictions of uncertain future outcomes, for example, the likelihood that a corporation will default on its debts.[7]

Usage
Derivatives are used by investors for the following: provide leverage (or gearing), such that a small movement in the underlying value can cause a large difference in the value of the derivative;[8] speculate and make a profit if the value of the underlying asset moves the way they expect (e.g., moves in a given direction, stays in or out of a specified range, reaches a certain level); hedge or mitigate risk in the underlying, by entering into a derivative contract whose value moves in the opposite direction to their underlying position and cancels part or all of it out;[9] obtain exposure to the underlying where it is not possible to trade in the underlying (e.g., weather derivatives);[10] create option ability where the value of the derivative is linked to a specific condition or event (e.g. the underlying reaching a specific price level).

Hedging
Derivatives allow risk related to the price of the underlying asset to be transferred from one party to another. For example, a wheat farmer and a miller could sign a futures contract to exchange a specified amount of cash for a specified amount of wheat in the future. Both parties have reduced a future risk: for the wheat farmer, the uncertainty of the price, and for the miller, the availability of wheat. However, there is still the risk that no wheat will be available because of events unspecified by the contract, such as the weather, or that one party will renege on the contract. Although a third party, called a clearing house, insures a futures contract, not all derivatives are insured against counter-party risk. From another perspective, the farmer and the miller both reduce a risk and acquire a risk when they sign the futures contract: the farmer reduces the risk that the price of wheat will fall below the price specified in the contract and acquires the risk that the price of wheat will rise above the price specified in the contract (thereby losing additional income that he could have earned). The miller, on the other hand, acquires the risk that the price of wheat will fall below the price specified in the contract (thereby paying more in the future than he otherwise would have) and reduces the risk that the price of wheat will rise above the price specified
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in the contract. In this sense, one party is the insurer (risk taker) for one type of risk, and the counter-party is the insurer (risk taker) for another type of risk. Hedging also occurs when an individual or institution buys an asset (such as a commodity, a bond that has coupon payments, a stock that pays dividends, and so on) and sells it using a futures contract. The individual or institution has access to the asset for a specified amount of time, and can then sell it in the future at a specified price according to the futures contract. Of course, this allows the individual or institution the benefit of holding the asset, while reducing the risk that the future selling price will deviate unexpectedly from the market's current assessment of the future value of the asset. Derivatives can serve legitimate business purposes. For example, a corporation borrows a large sum of money at a specific interest rate.[11] The rate of interest on the loan resets every six months. The corporation is concerned that the rate of interest may be much higher in six months. The corporation could buy a forward rate agreement (FRA), which is a contract to pay a fixed rate of interest six months after purchases on a notional amount of money.[12] If the interest rate after six months is above the contract rate, the seller will pay the difference to the corporation, or FRA buyer. If the rate is lower, the corporation will pay the difference to the seller. The purchase of the FRA serves to reduce the uncertainty concerning the rate increase and stabilize earnings.

Speculation and arbitrage

Derivatives can be used to acquire risk, rather than to hedge against risk. Thus, some individuals and institutions will enter into a derivative contract to speculate on the value of the underlying asset, betting that the party seeking insurance will be wrong about the future value of the underlying asset. Speculators look to buy an asset in the future at a low price according to a derivative contract when the future market price is high, or to sell an asset in the future at a high price according to a derivative contract when the future market price is low. Individuals and institutions may also look for arbitrage opportunities, as when the current buying price of an asset falls below the price specified in a futures contract to sell the asset. Speculative trading in derivatives gained a great deal of notoriety in 1995 when Nick Leeson, a trader at Barings Bank, made poor and unauthorized investments in futures contracts. Through a combination of
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poor judgment, lack of oversight by the bank's management and regulators, and unfortunate events like the Kobe earthquake, Leeson incurred a US$1.3 billion loss that bankrupted the centuries-old institution.[13]

Types
OTC and exchange-traded
In broad terms, there are two groups of derivative contracts, which are distinguished by the way they are traded in the market: Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives are contracts that are traded (and privately negotiated) directly between two parties, without going through an exchange or other intermediary. Products such as swaps, forward rate agreements, exotic options - and other exotic derivatives - are almost always traded in this way. The OTC derivative market is the largest market for derivatives, and is largely unregulated with respect to disclosure of information between the parties, since the OTC market is made up of banks and other highly sophisticated parties, such as hedge funds. Reporting of OTC amounts are difficult because trades can occur in private, without activity being visible on any exchange. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total outstanding notional amount is US$708 trillion (as of June 2011).[14] Of this total notional amount, 67% are interest rate contracts, 8% are credit default swaps (CDS), 9% are foreign exchange contracts, 2% are commodity contracts, 1% are equity contracts, and 12% are other. Because OTC derivatives are not traded on an exchange, there is no central counter-party. Therefore, they are subject to counter-party risk, like an ordinary contract, since each counter-party relies on the other to perform. Exchange-traded derivative contracts (ETD) are those derivatives instruments that are traded via specialized derivatives exchanges or other exchanges. A derivatives exchange is a market where individuals trade standardized contracts that have been defined by the exchange.[15] A derivatives exchange acts as an intermediary to all related transactions, and takes initial margin from both sides of the trade to act as a guarantee. The world's largest[16] derivatives exchanges (by number of transactions) are the Korea Exchange (which lists KOSPI Index Futures & Options), Eurex (which lists a wide range of European products such as interest rate & index products), and CME Group (made up of the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade and the 2008 acquisition of the New York Mercantile Exchange). According to BIS, the combined turnover in the world's derivatives exchanges totaled USD
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344 trillion during Q4 2005. Some types of derivative instruments also may trade on traditional exchanges. For instance, hybrid instruments such as convertible bonds and/or convertible preferred may be listed on stock or bond exchanges. Also, warrants (or "rights") may be listed on equity exchanges. Performance Rights, Cash xPRTs and various other instruments that essentially consist of a complex set of options bundled into a simple package are routinely listed on equity exchanges. Like other derivatives, these publicly traded derivatives provide investors access to risk/reward and volatility characteristics that, while related to an underlying commodity, nonetheless are distinctive.

Common derivative contract types

Some of the common variants of derivative contracts are as follows: Forwards:A tailored contract between two parties, where payment takes place at a specific time in the future at today's pre-determined price. Futures: are contracts to buy or sell an asset on or before a future date at a price specified today. A futures contract differs from a forward contract in that, while the former is a standardized contract written by a clearing house that operates an exchange where the contract can be bought and sold, the latter is a non-standardized contract written by the parties themselves. Options are contracts that give the owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy (in the case of a call option) or sell (in the case of a put option) an asset. The price at which the sale takes place is known as the strike price, and is specified at the time the parties enter into the option. The option contract also specifies a maturity date. In the case of a European option, the owner has the right to require the sale to take place on (but not before) the maturity date; in the case of an American option, the owner can require the sale to take place at any time up to the maturity date. If the owner of the contract exercises this right, the counter-party has the obligation to carry out the transaction. Options are of two types: call option and put option. The buyer of a Call option although has a right to buy a certain quantity of the underlying asset, at a specified price on or before a given date in the future, he however has no obligation whatsoever to carry out this right. Similarly, the buyer of a Put option although has the right to sell a certain quantity of an underlying asset, at a specified price on or before a given date in the future, he however has no obligation whatsoever to carry out this right. Warrants: Apart from the commonly used short-dated options which have a maximum maturity period of 1 year, there exists certain long-dated
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options as well, known as Warrant (finance). These are generally traded over-the-counter. Swaps are contracts to exchange cash (flows) on or before a specified future date based on the underlying value of currencies exchange rates, bonds/interest rates, commodities exchange, stocks or other assets. Another term which is commonly associated to Swap is Swaption which is basically an option on the forward Swap. Similar to a Call and Put option, a Swaption is of two kinds: a receiver Swaption and a payer Swaption. While on one hand, in case of a receiver Swaption there is an option wherein you can receive fixed and pay floating, a payer swaption on the other hand is an option to pay fixed and receive floating. Swaps can basically be categorized into two types: Interest Rate Swap: These basically necessitate swapping only interest associated cash flows in the same currency, between two parties. Currency swap: In this kind of swapping, the cash flow between the two parties includes both principal and interest. Also, the money which is being swapped is in different currency for both parties.[17]

Examples
The overall derivatives market has five major classes of underlying asset: interest rate derivatives (the largest) foreign exchange derivatives credit derivatives equity derivatives commodity derivatives Some common examples of these derivatives are the following: CONTRACT TYPES UNDERLYING Exchange- Exchangetraded futures traded options Option on DJIA Index DJIA Index Equity future Singlefuture Singleoption Eurodollar Option on Interest rate future Euribor Eurodollar future Interest rate swap Forward rate agreement Equity swap Back-toback Repurchase agreement OTC swap OTC forward OTC option Stock option Warrant Turbo warrant Interest rate cap and floor
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stock future share

future

Option on Euribor future

Swaption Basis swap Bond option Credit default swap Total return swap Repurchase agreement

Credit

Bond future

Option on Bond future

Credit default option

Foreign exchange

Currency future WTI crude

Option on currency future Weather

Currency swap Commodity

Currency forward Iron ore forward contract

Currency option Gold option

Commodity

oil futures derivatives swap

Other examples of underlying exchangeables are: Property (mortgage) derivatives Economic derivatives that pay off according to economic reports[18] as measured and reported by national statistical agencies Freight derivatives Inflation derivatives Weather derivatives Insurance derivatives[19] Emissions derivatives[20]

Economic function of the derivative market

Some of the salient economic functions of the derivative market include: Prices in a structured derivative market not only replicate the discernment of the market participants about the future but also lead the prices of underlying to the professed future level. On the expiration of the derivative contract, the prices of derivatives congregate with the prices of the underlying. Therefore, derivatives are essential tools to determine both current and future prices. The derivatives market relocates risk from the people who prefer risk aversion to the people who have an appetite for risk. The intrinsic nature of derivatives market associates them to the underlying Spot market. Due to derivatives there is a considerable
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increase in trade volumes of the underlying Spot market. The dominant factor behind such an escalation is increased participation by additional players who would not have otherwise participated due to absence of any procedure to transfer risk. As supervision, reconnaissance of the activities of various participants becomes tremendously difficult in assorted markets; the establishment of an organized form of market becomes all the more imperative. Therefore, in the presence of an organized derivatives market, speculation can be controlled, resulting in a more meticulous environment. A significant accompanying benefit which is a consequence of derivatives trading is that it acts as a facilitator for new Entrepreneurs. The derivatives market has a history of alluring many optimistic, imaginative and well educated people with an entrepreneurial outlook, the benefits of which are colossal. In a nutshell, there is a substantial increase in savings and investment in the long run due to augmented activities by derivative Market participant.[21]

Market and arbitrage-free prices

Two common measures of value are: Market price, i.e., the price at which traders are willing to buy or sell the contract; Arbitrage-free price, meaning that no risk-free profits can be made by trading in these contracts; see rational pricing.

Determining the market price

For exchange-traded derivatives, market price is usually transparent, making it difficult to automatically broadcast prices. In particular with OTC contracts, there is no central exchange to collate and disseminate prices.

Determining the arbitrage-free price

See List of finance topics# Derivatives pricing.
The arbitrage-free price for a derivatives contract can be complex, and there are many different variables to consider. Arbitrage-free pricing is a central topic of financial mathematics. For futures/forwards the arbitrage free price is relatively straightforward, involving the price of the underlying together with the cost of carry (income received less interest costs), although there can be complexities. However, for options and more complex derivatives, pricing involves developing a complex pricing model: understanding the stochastic process

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of the price of the underlying asset is often crucial. A key equation for the theoretical valuation of options is the BlackScholes formula, which is based on the assumption that the cash flows from a European stock option can be replicated by a continuous buying and selling strategy using only the stock. A simplified version of this valuation technique is the binomial options model. OTC represents the biggest challenge in using models to price derivatives. Since these contracts are not publicly traded, no market price is available to validate the theoretical valuation. Most of the model's results are inputdependant (meaning the final price depends heavily on how we derive the pricing inputs).[24] Therefore it is common that OTC derivatives are priced by Independent Agents that both counterparties involved in the deal designate upfront (when signing the contract).

Criticism
Derivatives are often subject to the following criticisms:

Erroneous Analysis of Benefits

Economists and bankers claimed derivatives made markets safer. But instead, they made them [the markets] unstable.[25]

Hidden Tail Risk

According to Raghuram Rajan, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), "... it may well be that the managers of these firms [investment funds] have figured out the correlations between the various instruments they hold and believe they are hedged. Yet as Chan and others (2005) point out, the lessons of summer 1998 following the default on Russian government debt is that correlations that are zero or negative in normal times can turn overnight to one a phenomenon they term phase lock-in. A hedged position can become unhedged at the worst times, inflicting substantial losses on those who mistakenly believe they are protected."[26]

Risk
See also: List of trading losses
The use of derivatives can result in large losses because of the use of leverage, or borrowing. Derivatives allow investors to earn large returns from small movements in the underlying asset's price. However, investors could lose large amounts if the price of the underlying moves against them significantly. There have been several instances of massive losses in derivative markets, such as the following: American International Group (AIG) lost more than US$18 billion
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through a subsidiary over the preceding three quarters on Credit Default Swaps (CDS).[27] The US federal government then gave the company US$85 billion in an attempt to stabilize the economy before an imminent stock market crash. It was reported that the gifting of money was necessary because over the next few quarters, the company was likely to lose more money. The loss of US$7.2 Billion by Socit Gnrale in January 2008 through mis-use of futures contracts. The loss of US$6.4 billion in the failed fund Amaranth Advisors, which was long natural gas in September 2006 when the price plummeted. The loss of US$4.6 billion in the failed fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. The loss of US$1.3 billion equivalent in oil derivatives in 1993 and 1994 by Metallgesellschaft AG.[28] The loss of US$1.2 billion equivalent in equity derivatives in 1995 by Barings Bank.[29] UBS AG, Switzerlands biggest bank, suffered a $2 billion loss through unauthorized trading discovered in September, 2011.[30]

Counter party risk

Some derivatives (especially swaps) expose investors to counter party risk. Different types of derivatives have different levels of counter party risk. For example, standardized stock options by law require the party at risk to have a certain amount deposited with the exchange, showing that they can pay for any losses; banks that help businesses swap variable for fixed rates on loans may do credit checks on both parties. However, in private agreements between two companies, for example, there may not be benchmarks for performing due diligence and risk analysis.

Large notional value

Derivatives typically have a large notional value. As such, there is the danger that their use could result in losses for which the investor would be unable to compensate. The possibility that this could lead to a chain reaction ensuing in an economic crisis was pointed out by famed investor Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway's 2002 annual report. Buffett called them 'financial weapons of mass destruction.' The problem with derivatives is that they control an increasingly larger notional amount of assets and this may lead to distortions in the real capital and equities markets. Investors begin to look at the derivatives markets to make a decision to buy or sell securities and so what was originally meant to be a

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market to transfer risk now becomes a leading indicator.(See Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report for 2002)

Leverage of an economy's debt

Derivatives massively leverage the debt in an economy, making it ever more difficult for the underlying real economy to service its debt obligations, thereby curtailing real economic activity, which can cause a recession or even depression. In the view of Marriner S. Eccles, US Federal Reserve Chairman from November, 1934 to February, 1948, too high a level of debt was one of the primary causes of the Great Depression. (See Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report for 2002)

Benefits
The use of derivatives also has its benefits: Derivatives facilitate the buying and selling of risk, and many financial professionals[who?] consider this to have a positive impact on the economic system. Although someone loses money while someone else gains money with a derivative, under normal circumstances, trading in derivatives should not adversely affect the economic system because it is not zero-sum in utility.[citation needed]

Government regulation
In the context of a 2010 examination of the ICE Trust, an industry selfregulatory body, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission which regulates most derivatives, was quoted saying that the derivatives marketplace as it functions now "adds up to higher costs to all Americans." More oversight of the banks in this market is needed, he also said. Additionally, the report said, "[t]he Department of Justice is looking into derivatives, too. The departments antitrust unit is actively investigating 'the possibility of anticompetitive practices in the credit derivatives clearing, trading and information services industries,' according to a department spokeswoman."[31] Over-the-counter dealing will be less common as the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act comes into effect. The law mandated the clearing of certain swaps at registered exchanges and imposed various restrictions on derivatives. To implement Dodd-Frank, the CFTC developed new rules in at least 30 areas. The Commission determines which swaps are subject to mandatory clearing and whether a derivatives exchange is eligible to clear a certain type of swap contract.

Glossary
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Bilateral netting: A legally enforceable arrangement between a bank and a counter-party that creates a single legal obligation covering all included individual contracts. This means that a banks obligation, in the event of the default or insolvency of one of the parties, would be the net sum of all positive and negative fair values of contracts included in the bilateral netting arrangement. Credit derivative: A contract that transfers credit risk from a protection buyer to a credit protection seller. Credit derivative products can take many forms, such as credit default swaps, credit linked notes and total return swaps. Derivative: A financial contract whose value is derived from the performance of assets, interest rates, currency exchange rates, or indexes. Derivative transactions include a wide assortment of financial contracts including structured debt obligations and deposits, swaps, futures, options, caps, floors, collars, forwards and various combinations thereof. Exchange-traded derivative contracts: Standardized derivative contracts (e.g., futures contracts and options) that are transacted on an organized futures exchange. Gross negative fair value: The sum of the fair values of contracts where the bank owes money to its counter-parties, without taking into account netting. This represents the maximum losses the banks counter-parties would incur if the bank defaults and there is no netting of contracts, and no bank collateral was held by the counter-parties. Gross positive fair value: The sum total of the fair values of contracts where the bank is owed money by its counter-parties, without taking into account netting. This represents the maximum losses a bank could incur if all its counter-parties default and there is no netting of contracts, and the bank holds no counter-party collateral. High-risk mortgage securities: Securities where the price or expected average life is highly sensitive to interest rate changes, as determined by the U.S. Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council policy statement on high-risk mortgage securities. Notional amount: The nominal or face amount that is used to calculate payments made on swaps and other risk management products. This amount generally does not change hands and is thus referred to as notional. Over-the-counter (OTC) derivative contracts: Privately negotiated derivative contracts that are transacted off organized futures exchanges. Structured notes: Non-mortgage-backed debt securities, whose cash flow
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characteristics depend on one or more indices and / or have embedded forwards or options. Total risk-based capital: The sum of tier 1 plus tier 2 capital. Tier 1 capital consists of common shareholders equity, perpetual preferred shareholders equity with non-cumulative dividends, retained earnings, and minority interests in the equity accounts of consolidated subsidiaries. Tier 2 capital consists of subordinated debt, intermediate-term preferred stock, cumulative and long-term preferred stock, and a portion of a banks allowance for loan and lease losses.
Index futures
Introduction to Derivatives Derivative is a product/contract which does not have any value on its own i.e. it derives its value from some underlying. Forward contracts A forward contract is one to one bi-partite contract, to be performed in the future, at the terms decided today. (E.g. forward currency market in India). Forward contracts offer tremendous flexibility to the parties to design the contract in terms of the price, quantity, quality (in case of commodities), delivery time and place. Forward contracts suffer from poor liquidity and default risk. Future contracts Future contracts are organised/ standardised contracts, which are traded on the exchanges. These contracts, being standardised and traded on the exchanges are very liquid in nature. In futures market, clearing corporation/ house provides the settlement guarantee. Every futures contract is a forward contract. They : are entered into through exchange, traded on exchange and clearing corporation/house provides the settlement guarantee for trades. are of standard quantity; standard quality (in case of commodities). have standard delivery time and place. Forward / Future Contracts Features Forward Contract Operational Mechanism Not traded on exchange Contract Specifications Differs from trade to trade. Contracts are standardised contracts. Traded on exchange Future Contract

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Counterparty Risk

Exists

Exists, but assumed by Clearing Corporation/ house.

Liquidation Profile

Poor Liquidity as contracts are tailor maid contracts.

Very high Liquidity as contracts are standardised contracts.

Price Discovery

Poor; as markets are fragmented.

Better; as fragmented markets are brought to the common platform.

Options Options are instruments whereby the right is given by the option seller to the option buyer to buy or sell a specific asset at a specific price on or before a specific date. Option Seller - One who gives/writes the option. He has an obligation to perform, in case option buyer desires to exercise his option. Option Buyer - One who buys the option. He has the right to exercise the option but no obligation. Call Option - Option to buy. Put Option - Option to sell. American Option - An option which can be exercised anytime on or before the expiry date. European Option - An option which can be exercised only on expiry date. Strike Price/ Exercise Price - Price at which the option is to be exercised. Expiration Date - Date on which the option expires. Exercise Date - Date on which the option gets exercised by the option holder/buyer. Option Premium - The price paid by the option buyer to the option seller for granting the option. Introduction of futures in India The first derivative product to be introduced in the Indian securities market is going to be "INDEX FUTURES". In the world, first index futures were traded in U.S. on Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) on Value Line Arithmetic Index (VLAI) in 1982. What are Index Futures? Index futures are the future contracts for which underlying is the cash market index. For example: BSE may launch a future contract on "BSE Sensitive Index" and NSE may launch a future contract on "S&P CNX NIFTY". Frequently used terms in Index Futures market Contract Size - The value of the contract at a specific level of Index. It is Index level * Multiplier.

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Multiplier - It is a pre-determined value, used to arrive at the contract size. It is the price per index point. Tick Size - It is the minimum price difference between two quotes of similar nature. Contract Month - The month in which the contract will expire. Expiry Day - The last day on which the contract is available for trading. Open interest - Total outstanding long or short positions in the market at any specific point in time. As total long positions for market would be equal to total short positions, for calculation of open Interest, only one side of the contracts is counted. Volume - No. of contracts traded during a specific period of time. During a day, during a week or during a month. Long position- Outstanding/unsettled purchase position at any point of time. Short position - Outstanding/ unsettled sales position at any point of time. Open position - Outstanding/unsettled long or short position at any point of time. Physical delivery - Open position at the expiry of the contract is settled through delivery of the underlying. In futures market, delivery is low. Cash settlement - Open position at the expiry of the contract is settled in cash. These contracts are designated as cash settled contracts. Index Futures fall in this category. Alternative Delivery Procedure (ADP) - Open position at the expiry of the contract is settled by two parties - one buyer and one seller, at the terms other than defined by the exchange. World wide a significant portion of the energy and energy related contracts (crude oil, heating and gasoline oil) are settled through Alternative Delivery Procedure. Concept of basis in futures market Basis is defined as the difference between cash and futures prices: Basis = Cash prices - Future prices. Basis can be either positive or negative (in Index futures, basis generally is negative). Basis may change its sign several times during the life of the contract. Basis turns to zero at maturity of the futures contract i.e. both cash and future prices converge at maturity

Life of the contract

Operators in the derivatives market Hedgers - Operators, who want to transfer a risk component of their portfolio. Speculators - Operators, who intentionally take the risk from hedgers in pursuit of profit. Arbitrageurs - Operators who operate in the different markets simultaneously, in pursuit of profit and eliminate mis-pricing. Pricing Futures Cost and carry model of Futures pricing Fair price = Spot price + Cost of carry - Inflows FPtT = CPt + CPt * (RtT - DtT) * (T-t)/365 FPtT - Fair price of the asset at time t for time T. CPt - Cash price of the asset.

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RtT - Interest rate at time t for the period up to T. DtT - Inflows in terms of dividend or interest between t and T. Cost of carry = Financing cost, Storage cost and insurance cost. If Futures price > Fair price; Buy in the cash market and simultaneously sell in the futures market. If Futures price < Fair price; Sell in the cash market and simultaneously buy in the futures market. This arbitrage between Cash and Future markets will remain till prices in the Cash and Future markets get aligned. Set of assumptions No seasonal demand and supply in the underlying asset. Storability of the underlying asset is not a problem. The underlying asset can be sold short. No transaction cost; No taxes. No margin requirements, and so the analysis relates to a forward contract, rather than a futures contract. Index Futures and cost and carry model In the normal market, relationship between cash and future indices is described by the cost and carry model of futures pricing. Expectancy Model of Futures pricing

S - Spot prices. F - Future prices. E(S) - Expected Spot prices. Expectancy model says that many a times it is not the relationship between the fair price and future price but the expected spot and future price which leads the market. This happens mainly when underlying is not storable or may not be sold short. For instance in commodities market. E(S) can be above or below the current spot prices. (This reflects markets expectations) Contango market- Market when Future prices are above cash prices. Backwardation market - Market when future prices are below cash prices. Relationship between forward & future markets Analyze the different dimensions of Forward and Future Contracts: (Risk; Liquidity; Leverage; Margining etc....) Assign value to each factor to arrive at the contract price. (Perception plays a crucial role in price determination)

Any substantial difference in the Forward and Future prices will trigger arbitrage.
Risk management through Futures Which risk are we going to manage through Futures ? Basic objective of introduction of futures is to manage the price risk.

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Index futures are used to manage the systemic risk, vested in the investment in securities. Hedge terminology Long hedge- When you hedge by going long in futures market. Short hedge - When you hedge by going short in futures market. Cross hedge - When a futures contract is not available on an asset, you hedge your position in cash market on this asset by going long or short on the futures for another asset whose prices are closely associated with that of your underlying. Hedge Contract Month- Maturity month of the contract through which hedge is accomplished. Hedge Ratio - Number of future contracts required to hedge the position. Some specific uses of Index Futures Portfolio Restructuring - An act of increasing or decreasing the equity exposure of a portfolio, quickly, with the help of Index Futures. Index Funds - These are the funds which imitate/replicate index with an objective to generate the return equivalent to the Index. This is called Passive Investment Strategy. Speculation in the Futures market Speculation is all about taking position in the futures market without having the underlying. Speculators operate in the market with motive to make money. They take: Naked positions - Position in any future contract. Spread positions - Opposite positions in two future contracts. This is a conservative speculative strategy. Speculators bring liquidity to the system, provide insurance to the hedgers and facilitate the price discovery in the market. Arbitrageurs in Futures market Arbitrageurs facilitate the alignment of prices among different markets through operating in them simultaneously. Margining in Futures market Whole system dwells on margins: Daily Margins Initial Margins Special Margins Compulsory collection of margins from clients including institutions. Collection of margins on the Portfolio basis not allowed by L. C. Gupta committee. Daily Margins Daily margins are collected to cover the losses which have already taken place on open positions. Price for daily settlement - Closing price of futures index. Price for final settlement - Closing price of cash index. For daily margins, two legs of spread positions would be treated independently. Daily margins should be received by CC/CH and/or exchange from its members before the market opens for the trading on the very next day. Daily margins would be paid only in cash. Initial Margins Margins to cover the potential losses for one day. To be collected on the basis of value at risk at 99% of the days. Different initial margins on: Naked long and short positions.

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Spread positions. Naked positions Short positions 100 [exp (3st ) - 1] Long positions 100 [1 - exp (3st)] Where (st)2 = l(st-1)2 + (1-l)(rt2) st is todays volatility estimates. st-1 is the volatility estimates on the previous trading day. l is decay factor which determines how rapidly volatility estimates change and is taken as 0.94 by Prof. J. R. Verma. rt is the return on the trading day [log(It/It-1)] Because volatility estimate st changes everyday, Initial margin on open position will change every day. (for first 6 months of futures trading, minimum initial margin on naked positions shall be 5%) Spread positions Flat rate of 0.5% per month of spread on the far month contract. Min. margin of 1% and maximum margin of 3% on spread positions. A calendar spread would be treated as open position in the far month contract as the near month contract approaches maturity. Over the last five days of trading of the near month contract, following percentages of the spread shall be treated as naked position in the far month contract: 100% on the day of expiry 80% one day before the expiry 60% two days before the expiry 40% three days before the expiry 20% four days before the expiry Margins on the calendar spread is to be reviewed after 6 months of futures trading. Liquid assets and Brokers net worth Liquid assets Cash, fixed deposits, bank guarantee, government securities and other approved securities. 50% of Liquid assets must be cash or cash equivalents. Cash equivalents means cash, fixed deposits, bank guarantee and government securities. Liquid net-worth = Liquid asset - Initial margin Continuous requirement for a clearing member: Minimum liquid net-worth of Rs. 50 Lacs. The mark to market value of gross open position shall not exceed 33.33 times of members liquid net worth. Basis for calculation of Gross Exposure: For the purpose of the exposure limit, a calendar spread shall be regarded as an open position of one third of the mark to market value of the far month contract. As the near month contract approaches expiry, the spread shall be treated as a naked position in the far month contract in the same manner as defined in slide no. 49. Margining in Futures market Initial Margin (Value at risk at 99% of the days) Daily Margin Special Margins

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Striking an intelligent balance between safety and liquidity while determining margins, is a million dollar point.
Position limits in Index Futures Customer level No position limit. Disclosure to exchange, if position of people acting in concert is 15% or more of open interest. Trading member level 15% of open interest or 100 crore whichever is higher. to be reviewed after 6 months of futures trading. Clearing member level No separate position limit. However, C.M. should ensure that his own positions (if C.M. is a T.M. also) and the positions of the T.Ms. clearing through him are within the limits specified above for T.M. Market level No limit. To be reviewed after 6 months of trading in futures. Expected advantages of derivatives to the cash market Higher liquidity Availability of risk management products attracts more investors to the cash market. Arbitrage between cash and futures markets fetches additional business to cash market. Improvement in delivery based business. Lesser volatility Improved price discovery. What makes a contract click Risk in the underlying market. Presence of both hedgers and speculators in the system. Right product specifications. Proper margining. Future Multiple indices trading on the same exchange even the same index with different contract designs Dedicated funds Future funds Options funds Hybrid funds

Module :04
Option (finance) In finance, an option is a derivative financial instrument that specifies a contract between two parties for a future transaction on an asset at a reference price (the strike).[1] The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the 114

obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the corresponding obligation to fulfil the transaction. The price of an option derives from the difference between the reference price and the value of the underlying asset (commonly a stock, a bond, a currency or a futures contract) plus a premium based on the time remaining until the expiration of the option. Other types of options exist, and options can in principle be created for any type of valuable asset. An option which conveys the right to buy something at a specific price is called a call; an option which conveys the right to sell something at a specific price is called a put. The reference price at which the underlying asset may be traded is called the strike price or exercise price. The process of activating an option and thereby trading the underlying at the agreed-upon price is referred to as

exercising it. Most options have an expiration date. If the option is not exercised
by the expiration date, it becomes void and worthless.[1] In return for assuming the obligation, called writing the option, the originator of the option collects a payment, the premium, from the buyer. The writer of an option must make good on delivering (or receiving) the underlying asset or its cash equivalent, if the option is exercised. An option can usually be sold by its original buyer to another party. Many options are created in standardized form and traded on an anonymous options exchange among the general public, while other over-the-counter options are customized ad hoc to the desires of the buyer, usually by an investment bank.[2][3] Contract specifications Every financial option is a contract between the two counterparties with the terms of the option specified in a term sheet. Option contracts may be quite complicated; however, at minimum, they usually contain the following specifications:[4] whether the option holder has the right to buy (a call option) or the right to sell (a put option) the quantity and class of the underlying asset(s) (e.g., 100 shares of XYZ Co. B stock) the strike price, also known as the exercise price, which is the price at which the underlying transaction will occur upon exercise the expiration date, or expiry, which is the last date the option can be exercised the settlement terms, for instance whether the writer must deliver the actual asset on exercise, or may simply tender the equivalent cash amount the terms by which the option is quoted in the market to convert the quoted price into the actual premium the total amount paid by the holder to the writer [edit] Types The Options can be classified into following types: 115

[edit] Exchange-traded options Exchange-traded options (also called "listed options") are a class of exchangetraded derivatives. Exchange traded options have standardized contracts, and are settled through a clearing house with fulfillment guaranteed by the credit of the exchange. Since the contracts are standardized, accurate pricing models are often available. Exchange-traded options include:[5][6] stock options, bond options and other interest rate options stock market index options or, simply, index options and options on futures contracts callable bull/bear contract [edit] Over-the-counter Over-the-counter options (OTC options, also called "dealer options") are traded between two private parties, and are not listed on an exchange. The terms of an OTC option are unrestricted and may be individually tailored to meet any business need. In general, at least one of the counterparties to an OTC option is a well-capitalized institution. Option types commonly traded over the counter include: interest rate options currency cross rate options, and options on swaps or swaptions. Other option types Another important class of options, particularly in the U.S., are employee stock options, which are awarded by a company to their employees as a form of incentive compensation. Other types of options exist in many financial contracts, for example real estate options are often used to assemble large parcels of land, and prepayment options are usually included in mortgage loans. However, many of the valuation and risk management principles apply across all financial options. Option styles

Main article: Option style

Naming conventions are used to help identify properties common to many different types of options. These include: European option an option that may only be exercised on expiration. American option an option that may be exercised on any trading day on or before expiry. Bermudan option an option that may be exercised only on specified dates on or before expiration. Barrier option any option with the general characteristic that the underlying security's price must pass a certain level or "barrier" before it can be exercised. Exotic option any of a broad category of options that may include complex financial structures.[7]

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Vanilla option any option that is not exotic. Valuation models

Main article: Valuation of options

The value of an option can be estimated using a variety of quantitative techniques based on the concept of risk neutral pricing and using stochastic calculus. The most basic model is the BlackScholes model. More sophisticated models are used to model the volatility smile. These models are implemented using a variety of numerical techniques.[8] In general, standard option valuation models depend on the following factors: The current market price of the underlying security, the strike price of the option, particularly in relation to the current market price of the underlying (in the money vs. out of the money), the cost of holding a position in the underlying security, including interest and dividends, the time to expiration together with any restrictions on when exercise may occur, and an estimate of the future volatility of the underlying security's price over the life of the option. More advanced models can require additional factors, such as an estimate of how volatility changes over time and for various underlying price levels, or the dynamics of stochastic interest rates. The following are some of the principal valuation techniques used in practice to evaluate option contracts. BlackScholes

Main article: BlackScholes

Following early work by Louis Bachelier and later work by Edward O. Thorp, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes made a major breakthrough by deriving a differential equation that must be satisfied by the price of any derivative dependent on a non-dividend-paying stock. By employing the technique of constructing a risk neutral portfolio that replicates the returns of holding an option, Black and Scholes produced a closed-form solution for a European option's theoretical price.[9] At the same time, the model generates hedge parameters necessary for effective risk management of option holdings. While the ideas behind the BlackScholes model were ground-breaking and eventually led to Scholes and Merton receiving the Swedish Central Bank's associated Prize for Achievement in Economics (a.k.a., the Nobel Prize in Economics),[10] the application of the model in actual options trading is clumsy because of the assumptions of continuous (or no) dividend payment, constant volatility, and a constant interest rate. Nevertheless, the BlackScholes model is still one of the most important methods and foundations for the existing financial market in which the result is within the reasonable range.[11] Stochastic volatility models

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Main article: Heston model

Since the market crash of 1987, it has been observed that market implied volatility for options of lower strike prices are typically higher than for higher strike prices, suggesting that volatility is stochastic, varying both for time and for the price level of the underlying security. Stochastic volatility models have been developed including one developed by S.L. Heston.[12] One principal advantage of the Heston model is that it can be solved in closed-form, while other stochastic volatility models require complex numerical methods.[12] Once a valuation model has been chosen, there are a number of different techniques used to take the mathematical models to implement the models. Analytic techniques In some cases, one can take the mathematical model and using analytical methods develop closed form solutions such as BlackScholes and the Black model. The resulting solutions are readily computable, as are their "Greeks". Binomial tree pricing model

Main article: Binomial options pricing model

Closely following the derivation of Black and Scholes, John Cox, Stephen Ross and Mark Rubinstein developed the original version of the binomial options pricing model.[13]
[14]

It models the dynamics of the option's theoretical value for

discrete time intervals over the option's life. The model starts with a binomial tree of discrete future possible underlying stock prices. By constructing a riskless portfolio of an option and stock (as in the BlackScholes model) a simple formula can be used to find the option price at each node in the tree. This value can approximate the theoretical value produced by Black Scholes, to the desired degree of precision. However, the binomial model is considered more accurate than BlackScholes because it is more flexible; e.g., discrete future dividend payments can be modeled correctly at the proper forward time steps, and American options can be modeled as well as European ones. Binomial models are widely used by professional option traders. The Trinomial tree is a similar model, allowing for an up, down or stable path; although considered more accurate, particularly when fewer time-steps are modelled, it is less commonly used as its implementation is more complex. Monte Carlo models

Main article: Monte Carlo methods for option pricing

For many classes of options, traditional valuation techniques are intractable because of the complexity of the instrument. In these cases, a Monte Carlo approach may often be useful. Rather than attempt to solve the differential equations of motion that describe the option's value in relation to the underlying security's price, a Monte Carlo model uses simulation to generate random price paths of the underlying asset, each of which results in a payoff for the option. The average of these payoffs can be discounted to yield an expectation value for the option.[15] Note though, that despite its flexibility, using simulation for

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American styled options is somewhat more complex than for lattice based models. Finite difference models

Main article: Finite difference methods for option pricing

The equations used to model the option are often expressed as partial differential equations (see for example BlackScholes PDE). Once expressed in this form, a finite difference model can be derived, and the valuation obtained. A number of implementations of finite difference methods exist for option valuation, including: explicit finite difference, implicit finite difference and the CrankNicholson method. A trinomial tree option pricing model can be shown to be a simplified application of the explicit finite difference method. Although the finite difference approach is mathematically sophisticated, it is particularly useful where changes are assumed over time in model inputs for example dividend yield, risk free rate, or volatility, or some combination of these that are not tractable in closed form. [edit] Other models Other numerical implementations which have been used to value options include finite element methods. Additionally, various short rate models have been developed for the valuation of interest rate derivatives, bond options and swaptions. These, similarly, allow for closed-form, lattice-based, and simulation-based modelling, with corresponding advantages and considerations. Risks As with all securities, trading options entails the risk of the option's value changing over time. However, unlike traditional securities, the return from holding an option varies non-linearly with the value of the underlying and other factors. Therefore, the risks associated with holding options are more complicated to understand and predict. In general, the change in the value of an option can be derived from Ito's lemma as:

where the Greeks

and

are the standard hedge parameters calculated , and are

from an option valuation model, such as BlackScholes, and respectively.

unit changes in the underlying's price, the underlying's volatility and time, Thus, at any point in time, one can estimate the risk inherent in holding an option by calculating its hedge parameters and then estimating the expected change in the model inputs, , and , provided the changes in these values are small. This technique can be used effectively to understand and manage the risks associated with standard options. For instance, by offsetting a holding in an option with the quantity of shares in the underlying, a trader can form a delta neutral portfolio that is hedged from loss for small changes in the underlying's price. The corresponding price sensitivity formula for this

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portfolio

is:

[edit] Example A call option expiring in 99 days on 100 shares of XYZ stock is struck at $50, with XYZ currently trading at $48. With future realized volatility over the life of the option estimated at 25%, the theoretical value of the option is $1.89. The hedge parameters , , , are (0.439, 0.0631, 9.6, and 0.022), respectively. Assume that on the following day, XYZ stock rises to $48.5 and volatility falls to 23.5%. We can calculate the estimated value of the call option by applying the hedge parameters to the new model inputs as:

Under this scenario, the value of the option increases by $0.0614 to $1.9514, realizing a profit of $6.14. Note that for a delta neutral portfolio, whereby the trader had also sold 44 shares of XYZ stock as a hedge, the net loss under the same scenario would be ($15.86). Pin risk

Main article: Pin risk

A special situation called pin risk can arise when the underlying closes at or very close to the option's strike value on the last day the option is traded prior to expiration. The option writer (seller) may not know with certainty whether or not the option will actually be exercised or be allowed to expire worthless. Therefore, the option writer may end up with a large, unwanted residual position in the underlying when the markets open on the next trading day after expiration, regardless of their best efforts to avoid such a residual. ] Counterparty risk A further, often ignored, risk in derivatives such as options is counterparty risk. In an option contract this risk is that the seller won't sell or buy the underlying asset as agreed. The risk can be minimized by using a financially strong intermediary able to make good on the trade, but in a major panic or crash the number of defaults can overwhelm even the strongest intermediaries. Trading The most common way to trade options is via standardized options contracts that are listed by various futures and options exchanges.
[16]

Listings and prices are

tracked and can be looked up by ticker symbol. By publishing continuous, live markets for option prices, an exchange enables independent parties to engage in price discovery and execute transactions. As an intermediary to both sides of the transaction, the benefits the exchange provides to the transaction include: fulfillment of the contract is backed by the credit of the exchange, which typically has the highest rating (AAA), counterparties remain anonymous,

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enforcement of market regulation to ensure fairness and transparency, and maintenance of orderly markets, especially during fast trading conditions. Over-the-counter options contracts are not traded on exchanges, but instead between two independent parties. Ordinarily, at least one of the counterparties is a well-capitalized institution. By avoiding an exchange, users of OTC options can narrowly tailor the terms of the option contract to suit individual business requirements. In addition, OTC option transactions generally do not need to be advertised to the market and face little or no regulatory requirements. However, OTC counterparties must establish credit lines with each other, and conform to each others clearing and settlement procedures. With few exceptions,[17] there are no secondary markets for employee stock options. These must either be exercised by the original grantee or allowed to expire worthless. Swap (finance) In finance, a swap is a derivative in which counterparties exchange cash flows of one party's financial instrument for those of the other party's financial instrument. The benefits in question depend on the type of financial instruments involved. For example, in the case of a swap involving two bonds, the benefits in question can be the periodic interest (or coupon) payments associated with the bonds. Specifically, the two counterparties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows against another stream. These streams are called the legs of the swap. The swap agreement defines the dates when the cash flows are to be paid and the way they are calculated.[1] Usually at the time when the contract is initiated at least one of these series of cash flows is determined by a random or uncertain variable such as an interest rate, foreign exchange rate, equity price or commodity price.[1] The cash flows are calculated over a notional principal amount, which is usually not exchanged between counterparties. Consequently, swaps can be in cash or collateral. Swaps can be used to hedge certain risks such as interest rate risk, or to speculate on changes in the expected direction of underlying prices. Swaps were first introduced to the public in 1981 when IBM and the World Bank entered into a swap agreement.[2] Today, swaps are among the most heavily traded financial contracts in the world: the total amount of interest rates and currency swaps outstanding is more thn $426.7 trillion in 2009, according to International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA). [edit] Swap market Most swaps are traded over-the-counter (OTC), "tailor-made" for the counterparties. Some types of swaps are also exchanged on futures markets such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc., the largest U.S. futures market, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, IntercontinentalExchange and Frankfurt121

based Eurex AG. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) publishes statistics on the notional amounts outstanding in the OTC derivatives market. At the end of 2006, this was USD 415.2 trillion, more than 8.5 times the 2006 gross world product. However, since the cash flow generated by a swap is equal to an interest rate times that notional amount, the cash flow generated from swaps is a substantial fraction of but much less than the gross world productwhich is also a cash-flow measure. The majority of this (USD 292.0 trillion) was due to interest rate swaps. These split by currency as:

Usually, at least one of the legs has a rate that is variable. It can depend on a reference rate, the total return of a swap, an economic statistic, etc. The most important criterion is that it comes from an independent third party, to avoid any conflict of interest. For instance, LIBOR is published by the British Bankers Association, an independent trade body. [edit] Types of swaps The five generic types of swaps, in order of their quantitative importance, are: interest rate swaps, currency swaps, credit swaps, commodity swaps and equity swaps. There are also many other types of swaps. Interest rate swaps

Main article: Interest rate swap

A is currently paying floating, but wants to pay fixed. B is currently paying fixed but wants to pay floating. By entering into an interest rate swap, the net result is that each party can 'swap' their existing obligation for their desired obligation. Normally the parties do not swap payments directly, but rather, each sets up a separate swap with a financial intermediary such as a bank. In return for matching the two parties together, the bank takes a spread from the swap payments. The most common type of swap is a plain Vanilla interest rate swap. It is the exchange of a fixed rate loan to a floating rate loan. The life of the swap can range from 2 years to over 15 years. The reason for this exchange is to take benefit from comparative advantage. Some companies may have comparative 122

advantage in fixed rate markets while other companies have a comparative advantage in floating rate markets. When companies want to borrow they look for cheap borrowing i.e. from the market where they have comparative advantage. However this may lead to a company borrowing fixed when it wants floating or borrowing floating when it wants fixed. This is where a swap comes in. A swap has the effect of transforming a fixed rate loan into a floating rate loan or vice versa. For example, party B makes periodic interest payments to party A based on a variable interest rate of LIBOR +70 basis points. Party A in return makes periodic interest payments based on a fixed rate of 8.65%. The payments are calculated over the notional amount. The first rate is called variable, because it is reset at the beginning of each interest calculation period to the then current reference rate, such as LIBOR. In reality, the actual rate received by A and B is slightly lower due to a bank taking a spread. Currency swaps

Main article: Currency swap

A currency swap involves exchanging principal and fixed rate interest payments on a loan in one currency for principal and fixed rate interest payments on an equal loan in another currency. Just like interest rate swaps, the currency swaps are also motivated by comparative advantage. Currency swaps entail swapping both principal and interest between the parties, with the cashflows in one direction being in a different currency than those in the opposite direction. It is also a very crucial uniform pattern in individuals and customers. Commodity swaps

Main article: Commodity swap

A commodity swap is an agreement whereby a floating (or market or spot) price is exchanged for a fixed price over a specified period. The vast majority of commodity swaps involve crude oil. Credit default swaps

Main article: Credit default swap

A credit default swap (CDS) is a swap contract in which the buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments to the seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if an instrument - typically a bond or loan - goes into default (fails to pay). Less commonly, the credit event that triggers the payoff can be a company undergoing restructuring, bankruptcy or even just having its credit rating downgraded. CDS contracts have been compared with insurance, because the buyer pays a premium and, in return, receives a sum of money if one of the events specified in the contract occur. Unlike an actual insurance contract the buyer is allowed to profit from the contract and may also cover an asset to which the buyer has no direct exposure. Other variations There are myriad different variations on the vanilla swap structure, which are limited only by the imagination of financial engineers and the desire of

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corporate treasurers and fund managers for exotic structures.[1] A total return swap is a swap in which party A pays the total return of an asset, and party B makes periodic interest payments. The total return is the capital gain or loss, plus any interest or dividend payments. Note that if the total return is negative, then party A receives this amount from party B. The parties have exposure to the return of the underlying stock or index, without having to hold the underlying assets. The profit or loss of party B is the same for him as actually owning the underlying asset. An option on a swap is called a swaption. These provide one party with the right but not the obligation at a future time to enter into a swap. A variance swap is an over-the-counter instrument that allows one to speculate on or hedge risks associated with the magnitude of movement, a CMS, is a swap that allows the purchaser to fix the duration of received flows on a swap. An Amortising swap is usually an interest rate swap in which the notional principal for the interest payments declines during the life of the swap, perhaps at a rate tied to the prepayment of a mortgage or to an interest rate benchmark such as the LIBOR. It is suitable to those customers of banks who want to manage the interest rate risk involved in predicted funding requirement, or investment programs. A Zero coupon swap is of use to those entities which have their liabilities denominated in floating rates but at the same time would like to conserve cash for operational purposes. A Deferred rate swap is particularly attractive to those users of funds that need funds immediately but do not consider the current rates of interest very attractive and feel that the rates may fall in future. An Accreting swap is used by banks which have agreed to lend increasing sums over time to its customers so that they may fund projects. A Forward swap is an agreement created through the synthesis of two swaps differing in duration for the purpose of fulfilling the specific time-frame needs of an investor. Also referred to as a forward start swap, delayed start swap, and a deferred start swap. Valuation

Further information: Rational pricing#Swaps and Arbitrage

The value of a swap is the net present value (NPV) of all estimated future cash flows. A swap is worth zero when it is first initiated, however after this time its value may become positive or negative.[1] There are two ways to value swaps: in terms of bond prices, or as a portfolio of forward contracts.[1] Using bond prices While principal payments are not exchanged in an interest rate swap, assuming that these are received and paid at the end of the swap does not change its value. Thus, from the point of view of the floating-rate payer, a swap is equivalent to a long position in a fixed-rate bond (i.e. receiving fixed interest payments), and a

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short position in a floating rate note (i.e. making floating interest payments): From the point of view of the fixed-rate payer, the swap can be viewed as having the opposite positions. That is, Similarly, currency swaps can be regarded as having positions in bonds whose cash flows correspond to those in the swap. Thus, the home currency value is: , where swap, is the domestic cash flows of the is the foreign cash flows of the LIBOR is the rate of interest offered

by banks on deposit from other banks in the eurocurrency market. One-month LIBOR is the rate offered for 1-month deposits, 3-month LIBOR for three months deposits, etc. LIBOR rates are determined by trading between banks and change continuously as economic conditions change. Just like the prime rate of interest quoted in the domestic market, LIBOR is a reference rate of interest in the international market. Arbitrage arguments As mentioned, to be arbitrage free, the terms of a swap contract are such that, initially, the NPV of these future cash flows is equal to zero. Where this is not the case, arbitrage would be possible. For example, consider a plain vanilla fixed-to-floating interest rate swap where Party A pays a fixed rate, and Party B pays a floating rate. In such an agreement the fixed rate would be such that the present value of future fixed rate payments by Party A are equal to the present value of the expected future floating rate payments (i.e. the NPV is zero). Where this is not the case, an Arbitrageur, C, could: assume the position with the lower present value of payments, and borrow funds equal to this present value meet the cash flow obligations on the position by using the borrowed funds, and receive the corresponding payments - which have a higher present value use the received payments to repay the debt on the borrowed funds pocket the difference - where the difference between the present value of the loan and the present value of the inflows is the arbitrage profit. This section requires additional example Subsequently, once traded, the price of the Swap must equate to the price of the various corresponding instruments as mentioned above. Where this is not true, an arbitrageur could similarly short sell the overpriced instrument, and use the proceeds to purchase the correctly priced instrument, pocket the difference, and then use payments generated to service the instrument which he is short. A currency swap is a foreign-exchange agreement between two parties to exchange aspects (namely the principal and/or interest payments) of a loan in one currency for equivalent aspects of an equal in net present value loan in 125

another currency; see foreign exchange derivative. Currency swaps are motivated by comparative advantage.[1] A currency swap should be distinguished from a central bank liquidity swap.

A currency swap is an agreement between two parties to exchange the principal loan amount and interest applicable on it in one currency with the principal and interest payments on an equal loan in another currency. These contracts are valid for a specific period, which could range up to ten years, and are typically used to exchange fixed-rate interest payments for floating-rate payments on dates specified by the two parties.
Since the exchange of payment takes place in two different currencies, the prevailing spot rate is used to calculate the payment amount. This financial instrument is used to hedge interest rate risks.

How Does a Currency Swap Work?

A currency swap agreement specifies the principal amount to be swapped, a common maturity period and the interest and exchange rates determined at the commencement of the contract. The two parties would continue to exchange the interest payment at the predetermined rate until the maturity period is reached. On the date of maturity, the two parties swap the principal amount specified in the contract. The equivalent amount of the loan value in another currency is calculated by using the net present value (NPV). This implies that the exchange of the principal amount is carried out at market rates during the inception and maturity periods of the agreement.

Benefits of Currency Swaps

The benefits of currency swaps are: Help portfolio managers regulate their exposure to interest rates. Speculators can benefit from a favorable change in interest rates. Reduce uncertainty associated with future cash flows as it enables companies to modify their debt conditions. Reduce costs and risks associated with currency exchange. Companies having fixed rate liabilities can capitalize on floating-rate swaps and vise versa, based on the prevailing economic scenario.

Limitations of Currency Swaps

The drawbacks of currency swaps are: Exposed to credit risk as either one or both the parties could default on interest and principal payments. Vulnerable to the central governments intervention in the exchange markets. This happens when the government of a country acquires huge foreign debts to temporarily support a declining currency. This leads to a huge downturn in the value of the domestic currency. Find out more about Cross Currency Swaps.

Interest rate swap From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search An interest rate swap is a popular and highly liquid financial derivative instrument in which two parties agree to exchange interest rate cash flows, based 126

on a specified notional amount from a fixed rate to a floating rate (or vice versa) or from one floating rate to another.[1] Interest rate swaps are commonly used for both hedging and speculating. Contents 1 Structure 2 Types 2.1 Fixed-for-floating rate swap, same currency 2.2 Fixed-for-floating rate swap, different currencies 2.3 Floating-for-floating rate swap, same currency 2.4 Floating-for-floating rate swap, different currencies 2.5 Fixed-for-fixed rate swap, different currencies 2.6 Other variations 3 Uses 3.1 Speculation 3.2 British local authorities 4 Valuation and pricing 5 Risks 6 Market size 7 References 8 See also 9 External links Structure

Party A is currently paying floating rate, but wants to pay fixed rate. Party B is currently paying fixed rate, but wants to pay floating rate. By entering into an interest rate swap, the net result is that each party can 'swap' their existing obligation for their desired obligation. In an interest rate swap, each counterparty agrees to pay either a fixed or floating rate denominated in a particular currency to the other counterparty. The fixed or floating rate is multiplied by a notional principal amount (say, USD 1 million). This notional amount is typically not exchanged between 127

counterparties, but is used only for calculating the size of cashflows to be exchanged. The most common interest rate swap is one where one counterparty A pays a fixed rate (the swap rate) to counterparty B, while receiving a floating rate indexed to a reference rate (such as LIBOR). By market convention, the counterparty paying the fixed rate is called the "payer" (while receiving the floating rate), and the counterparty receiving the fixed rate is called the "receiver" (while paying the floating rate). A pays fixed rate to B (A receives variable rate) B pays floating rate to A (B receives fixed rate) Currently, A borrows from Market @ LIBOR +1.5%. B borrows from Market @ 8.5%. Consider the following swap in which Party A agrees to pay Party B periodic fixed interest rate payments of 8.65%, in exchange for periodic variable interest rate payments of LIBOR + 70 bps (0.70%). Note that there is no exchange of the principal amounts and that the interest rates are on a "notional" (i.e. imaginary) principal amount. Also note that the interest payments are settled in net (e.g. Party A pays (LIBOR + 1.50%)+8.65% - (LIBOR+0.70%) = 9.45% net). The fixed rate (8.65% in this example) is referred to as the swap rate.[2] At the point of initiation of the swap, the swap is priced so that it has a net present value of zero. If one party wants to pay 50 bps above the par swap rate, the other party has to pay approximately 50 bps over LIBOR to compensate for this. [edit] Types

Normally the parties do not swap payments directly, but rather each sets up a separate swap with a financial intermediary such as a bank. In return for matching the two parties together, the bank takes a spread from the swap payments (in this case 0.30% compared to the above example) Being OTC instruments, interest rate swaps can come in a huge number of varieties and can be structured to meet the specific needs of the counterparties. For example, the legs of the swap can be in the same currency or in different currencies. The notional of the swap could be amortized over time. The reset dates of the floating rate could be non-regular, etc. However, in the interbank market, just a few, standardized types are traded. They are listed below. 128

[edit] Fixed-for-floating rate swap, same currency Party B pays/receives fixed interest in currency A to receive/pay floating rate in currency A indexed to X on a notional amount N for a term of T years. For example, you pay fixed 5.32% monthly to receive USD 1M Libor monthly on a notional USD 1 million for 3 years. The party that pays fixed and receives floating coupon rates is said to be short the interest swap because it is expressed as a bond convention (as prices fall, yields rise). The party interested to pay fixed and receive floating is bullish on interest rates and so short his position and thus, buy floating rate. Interest rate swaps are simply the exchange of one set of cash flows for another. Fixed-for-floating swaps in same currency are used to convert a fixed rate asset/liability to a floating rate asset/liability or vice versa. For example, if a company has a fixed rate USD 10 million loan at 5.3% paid monthly and a floating rate investment of USD 10 million that returns USD 1M Libor +25 bps monthly, it may enter into a fixed-for-floating swap. In this swap, the company would pay a floating rate of USD 1M Libor+25 bps and receive a 5.5% fixed rate, locking in 20bps profit. [edit] Fixed-for-floating rate swap, different currencies Party P pays/receives fixed interest in currency A to receive/pay floating rate in currency B indeed to X on a notional N at an initial exchange rate of FX for a tenure of T years. For example, you pay fixed 5.32% on the USD notional 10 million quarterly to receive JPY 3M (TIBOR) monthly on a JPY notional 1.2 billion (at an initial exchange rate of USD/JPY 120) for 3 years. For nondeliverable swaps, the USD equivalent of JPY interest will be paid/received (according to the FX rate on the FX fixing date for the interest payment day). No initial exchange of the notional amount occurs unless the Fx fixing date and the swap start date fall in the future. Fixed-for-floating swaps in different currencies are used to convert a fixed rate asset/liability in one currency to a floating rate asset/liability in a different currency, or vice versa. For example, if a company has a fixed rate USD 10 million loan at 5.3% paid monthly and a floating rate investment of JPY 1.2 billion that returns JPY 1M Libor +50 bps monthly, and wants to lock in the profit in USD as they expect the JPY 1M Libor to go down or USDJPY to go up (JPY depreciate against USD), then they may enter into a Fixed-Floating swap in different currency where the company pays floating JPY 1M Libor+50 bps and receives 5.6% fixed rate, locking in 30bps profit against the interest rate and the fx exposure. [edit] Floating-for-floating rate swap, same currency Party P pays/receives floating interest in currency A Indexed to X to receive/pay floating rate in currency A indexed to Y on a notional N for a tenure of T years. For example, you pay JPY 1M LIBOR monthly to receive JPY 1M TIBOR monthly on a notional JPY 1 billion for 3 years.

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Floating-for-floating rate swaps are used to hedge against or speculate on the spread between the two indexes widening or narrowing. For example, if a company has a floating rate loan at JPY 1M LIBOR and the company has an investment that returns JPY 1M TIBOR + 30 bps and currently the JPY 1M TIBOR = JPY 1M LIBOR + 10bps. At the moment, this company has a net profit of 40 bps. If the company thinks JPY 1M TIBOR is going to come down (relative to the LIBOR) or JPY 1M LIBOR is going to increase in the future (relative to the TIBOR) and wants to insulate from this risk, they can enter into a float-float swap in same currency where they pay, say, JPY TIBOR + 30 bps and receive JPY LIBOR + 35 bps. With this, they have effectively locked in a 35 bps profit instead of running with a current 40 bps gain and index risk. The 5 bps difference (w.r.t. the current rate difference) comes from the swap cost which includes the market expectations of the future rate difference between these two indices and the bid/offer spread which is the swap commission for the swap dealer. Floating-for-floating rate swaps are also seen where both sides reference the same index, but on different payment dates, or use different business day conventions. This can be vital for asset-liability management. An example would be swapping 3M LIBOR being paid with prior non-business day convention, quarterly on JAJO (i.e. Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) 30, into FMAN (i.e. Feb, May, Aug, Nov) 28 modified following [edit] Floating-for-floating rate swap, different currencies Party P pays/receives floating interest in currency A indexed to X to receive/pay floating rate in currency B indexed to Y on a notional N at an initial exchange rate of FX for a tenure of T years. For example, you pay floating USD 1M LIBOR on the USD notional 10 million quarterly to receive JPY 3M TIBOR monthly on a JPY notional 1.2 billion (at an initial exchange rate of USDJPY 120) for 4 years. To explain the use of this type of swap, consider a US company operating in Japan. To fund their Japanese growth, they need JPY 10 billion. The easiest option for the company is to issue debt in Japan. As the company might be new in the Japanese market without a well known reputation among the Japanese investors, this can be an expensive option. Added on top of this, the company might not have appropriate debt issuance program in Japan and they might lack sophisticated treasury operation in Japan. To overcome the above problems, it can issue USD debt and convert to JPY in the FX market. Although this option solves the first problem, it introduces two new risks to the company: FX risk. If this USDJPY spot goes up at the maturity of the debt, then when the company converts the JPY to USD to pay back its matured debt, it receives less USD and suffers a loss. USD and JPY interest rate risk. If the JPY rates come down, the return on the investment in Japan might go down and this introduces an interest rate risk

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component. The first exposure in the above can be hedged using long dated FX forward contracts but this introduces a new risk where the implied rate from the FX spot and the FX forward is a fixed rate but the JPY investment returns a floating rate. Although there are several alternatives to hedge both the exposures effectively without introducing new risks, the easiest and the most cost effective alternative would be to use a floating-for-floating swap in different currencies. In this, Fixed-for-fixed rate swap, different currencies Party P pays/receives fixed interest in currency A to receive/pay fixed rate in currency B for a term of T years. For example, you pay JPY 1.6% on a JPY notional of 1.2 billion and receive USD 5.36% on the USD equivalent notional of 10 million at an initial exchange rate of USDJPY 120. Other variations A number of other variations are possible, although far less common. Mostly tweaks are made to ensure that a bond is hedged "perfectly", so that all the interest payments received are exactly offset by the swap. This can lead to swaps where principal is paid on one or more legs, rather than just interest (for example to hedge a coupon strip), or where the balance of the swap is automatically adjusted to match that of a prepaying bond (such as RMBS Residential mortgage-backed security) USES Interest rate swaps were originally created to allow multi-national companies to evade exchange controls. Today, interest rate swaps are used to hedge against or speculate on changes in interest rates. Speculation Interest rate swaps are also used speculatively by hedge funds or other investors who expect a change in interest rates or the relationships between them. Traditionally, fixed income investors who expected rates to fall would purchase cash bonds, whose value increased as rates fell. Today, investors with a similar view could enter a floating-for-fixed interest rate swap; as rates fall, investors would pay a lower floating rate in exchange for the same fixed rate. Interest rate swaps are also very popular due to the arbitrage opportunities they provide. Due to varying levels of creditworthiness in companies, there is often a positive quality spread differential which allows both parties to benefit from an interest rate swap. The interest rate swap market is closely linked to the Eurodollar futures market which trades at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. [edit] British local authorities In June 1988 the Audit Commission was tipped off by someone working on the swaps desk of Goldman Sachs that the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham had a massive exposure to interest rate swaps. When the commission contacted the council, the chief executive told them not to worry as "everybody

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knows that interest rates are going to fall"; the treasurer thought the interest rate swaps were a 'nice little earner'. The controller of the commission, Howard Davies realised that the council had put all of its positions on interest rates going down; he sent a team in to investigate. By January 1989 the commission obtained legal opinions from two Queen's Counsel. Although they did not agree, the commission preferred the opinion which made it ultra vires for councils to engage in interest rate swaps. Moreover interest rates had gone up from 8% to 15%. The auditor and the commission then went to court and had the contracts declared illegal (appeals all the way up to the House of Lords failed); the five banks involved lost millions of pounds. Many other local authorities had been engaging in interest rate swaps in the 1980s, although Hammersmith was unusual in betting all one way.[3] [edit] Valuation and pricing

Further information: Rational_pricing#Swaps

The present value of a plain vanilla (i.e. fixed rate for floating rate) swap can easily be computed using standard methods of determining the present value (PV) of the fixed leg and the floating leg. The value of the fixed leg is given by the present value of the fixed coupon payments known at the start of the swap, i.e.

where C is the swap rate, M is the number of fixed payments, P is the notional amount, ti is the number of days in period i, Ti is the basis according to the day count convention and dfi is the discount factor. Similarly, the value of the floating leg is given by the present value of the floating coupon payments determined at the agreed dates of each payment. However, at the start of the swap, only the actual payment rates of the fixed leg are known in the future, whereas the forward rates (derived from the yield curve) are used to approximate the floating rates. Each variable rate payment is calculated based on the forward rate for each respective payment date. Using these interest rates leads to a series of cash flows. Each cash flow is discounted by the zero-coupon rate for the date of the payment; this is also sourced from the yield curve data available from the market. Zero-coupon rates are used because these rates are for bonds which pay only one cash flow. The interest rate swap is therefore treated like a series of zero-coupon bonds. Thus, the value of the floating leg is given by the following:

where N is the number of floating payments, fj is the forward rate, P is the notional amount, tj is the number of days in period j, Tj is the basis according to the day count convention and dfj is the discount factor. The discount factor

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always starts with 1. The discount factor is found as follows: [Discount factor in the previous period]/[1 + (Forward rate of the floating underlying asset in the previous period Number of days in period/360)]. (Depending on the currency, the denominator is 365 instead of 360; e.g. for GBP.) The fixed rate offered in the swap is the rate which values the fixed rates payments at the same PV as the variable rate payments using today's forward rates, i.e.:

[4]

Therefore, at the time the contract is entered into, there is no advantage to either party, i.e., Thus, the swap requires no upfront payment from either party. During the life of the swap, the same valuation technique is used, but since, over time, the forward rates change, the PV of the variable-rate part of the swap will deviate from the unchangeable fixed-rate side of the swap. Therefore, the swap will be an asset to one party and a liability to the other. The way these changes in value are reported is the subject of IAS 39 for jurisdictions following IFRS, and FAS 133 for U.S. GAAP. Swaps are marked to market by debt security traders to visualize their inventory at a certain time. Risks Interest rate swaps expose users to interest rate risk and credit risk. Market Risk: A typical swap consists of two legs, one fixed, the other floating. The risks of these two component will naturally differ. Newcomers to market finance may think that the risky component is the floating leg, since the underlying interest rate floats, and hence, is unknown. This first impression is wrong. The risky component is in fact the fixed leg and it is very easy to see why this is so. The discussion of pricing interest rate swaps illustrated an important point. Regardless of what happens to future Libor rates, the value of a rolling deposit or FRN always equals the notional amount N at the reset dates. Between the reset dates this value may be different than N, but the discrepancy cannot be very large since the will be 3 or 6 months. Interest rate fluctuations have minimal effect on the values of fixed instruments with such maturities. In other words, the value of the floating leg changes very little during the life of a swap. On the other hand the fixed leg of a swap is equivalent to a coupon bond and fluctuations of the swap rate may have major effects on the value of the future fixed payments. Credit risk on the swap comes into play if the swap is in the money or not. If one of the parties is in the money, then that party faces credit risk of possible default by another party. The Bank for International Settlements reports that interest rate swaps are the 133

largest component of the global OTC derivative market. The notional amount outstanding as of June 2009 in OTC interest rate swaps was $342 trillion, up from $310 trillion in Dec 2007. The gross market value was $13.9 trillion in June 2009, up from $6.2 trillion in Dec 2007. Interest rate swaps can now be traded as an Index through the FTSE MTIRS Index.

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