Block E · Derivatives
‹ Financial markets handbook: overview
Independent working reference. Product and feature names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners. No investment advice.
Derivatives derive their value from an underlying; they shift risks between market participants; the same instrument can hedge or speculate, what matters is the offsetting position in the portfolio.
59 · Futures
Definition: Exchange-traded, standardized forward transactions with daily margin settlement via a central counterparty.
Use: Fast, cheap steering of allocations (equity beta, duration) without moving cash holdings; hedging.
Opportunities: High liquidity; hardly any counterparty risk (clearing); low costs.
Risks: Leverage; margin calls; roll costs.
Typical mistake: Underestimating the contract value; one future moves a multiple of the posted margin.
See also: 146 · Duration management & bond laddering · 163 · Hedging with derivatives
60 · Forwards
Definition: Individually agreed, over-the-counter (OTC) forward transactions without standardization.
Use: Tailor-made hedging (amount, date); the standard in FX hedging.
Opportunities: Exact fit.
Risks: Counterparty risk; no daily valuation transparency; commitment until maturity.
Typical mistake: Reading the forward rate as a market forecast; it follows from the interest rate differential, not from an expectation.
61 · Options (call/put, basics)
Definition: The right (not the obligation) to buy (call) or sell (put) an underlying at the strike; price = intrinsic value + time value.
Use: Hedging with limited cost (put), yield enhancement (option writing), asymmetric positions.
Opportunities: Defined maximum loss as a buyer; flexibility.
Risks: Time decay; volatility as a risk source of its own; as a writer, theoretically unlimited risk.
Typical mistake: Thinking about options only through price direction; volatility and remaining maturity co-determine the price.
See also: 200 · Option pricing theory basics · 110 · Volatility (historical/implied)
62 · Option strategies (covered call, protective put, collar)
Definition: Combinations of underlying and options: covered call (holding + call sold), protective put (holding + put bought), collar (both).
Use: Extra income on holdings, hedging, cost-reduced partial protection.
Opportunities: Plannable profiles; premium income.
Risks: A covered call caps the upside; put costs erode return; a collar freezes both sides.
Typical mistake: Perceiving covered calls in strongly rising markets as "loss-free"; the opportunity costs are real.
See also: 110 · Volatility (historical/implied) · 147 · Hedging strategies (overview)
63 · Warrants
Definition: Securitized options of a bank (issuer product), mostly for retail investors; like certificates, they are notes.
Use: Small-scale options access without a futures account.
Opportunities: Small denominations.
Risks: Issuer risk; spreads and implied vol set by the issuer; cost opacity.
Typical mistake: Not benchmarking warrant prices against the exchange-traded option.
64 · Interest rate swaps (IRS)
Definition: Exchange of fixed for floating interest payments on a notional amount; the core instrument of the rates market.
Use: Steering the fixed/floating mix, duration overlay, valuation reference (swap curve).
Opportunities: Deep liquidity; no capital movement.
Risks: Present value fluctuation; clearing/margin obligations (EMIR); basis risks.
Typical mistake: Calling a swap "free"; the fixed rate contains the market's rate expectation plus a margin.
See also: 146 · Duration management & bond laddering · 90 · Policy rates & rate decisions
65 · Currency swaps (cross currency)
Definition: Exchange of principal and interest payments in two currencies; contains the cross-currency basis as a price factor of its own.
Use: Hedging long-term funding/investment in foreign currency.
Opportunities: Complete FX and rate hedging.
Risks: Basis fluctuations; counterparty/collateral effort.
Typical mistake: Estimating hedging costs from the rate differential only and forgetting the basis.
66 · Credit default swaps (CDS)
Definition: Insurance against the default of a debtor; a premium (spread) against a compensation payment in a credit event.
Use: Hedging credit risk or taking it deliberately; a market barometer for credit quality (CDS spread).
Opportunities: Credit risk tradable separately.
Risks: Definition of the credit event; basis to the bond; counterparty risk.
Typical mistake: Equating CDS spread and bond spread; the basis between them can be large and persistent.
See also: 153 · Credit risk parameters (PD, LGD, EAD) · 118 · S&P Global Ratings (AAA-D scale)
67 · Total return swaps
Definition: Exchange of an asset's total return (price + income) against a reference rate.
Use: Synthetic exposure without ownership (e.g. in funds/certificates); financing; short sale substitute.
Opportunities: Access and efficiency.
Risks: Counterparty and collateral risk; opacity (Archegos 2021 as the object lesson).
Typical mistake: Overlooking synthetic replication in products; check the KID/prospectus.
68 · Swaptions
Definition: An option to enter into an interest rate swap (payer/receiver).
Use: Conditional rate protection (e.g. hedging against a rate rise only if needed); steering convexity.
Opportunities: Flexibility for a premium.
Risks: Premium decay; complexity of the vol surface.
Typical mistake: Judging swaption premiums without looking at implied rate volatility.
69 · Caps/floors
Definition: An interest rate ceiling (cap) or floor on a reference rate for a premium; a series of interest rate options (caplets).
Use: Capping floating rate funding; securing a minimum interest rate.
Opportunities: Protection while keeping the upside.
Risks: Premium costs; effect only beyond the strike.
Typical mistake: Not converting cap costs into the effective interest rate of the funding.
70 · Structured products (construction)
Definition: A combination of an interest instrument + derivatives into a payoff profile (see certificates, topic 57); here the construction logic: zero bond + options.
Use: Profiles made to measure (protection level, participation, coupon).
Opportunities: Almost any profile can be constructed.
Risks: Price of the components opaque; liquidity; issuer risk.
Typical mistake: Buying products whose profile one cannot sketch from components oneself.
See also: 57 · Certificates (structure, issuer risk)
71 · Leverage products (knock-outs, factor)
Definition: Products with constant leverage (factor) or a barrier (knock-out: worthless when touched).
Use: Short-term speculation/tactical trading; not an investment instrument.
Opportunities: High leverage on gains; little capital.
Risks: Total loss via knock-out; path dependence in factor products (sideways losses); issuer risk.
Typical mistake: Holding factor certificates longer; the daily leveraging destroys return in sideways markets.
See also: 201 · Loss aversion & disposition effect