finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

, an equity derivative is a class of derivatives whose value is at least partly ''derived'' from one or more

underlying In finance, a derivative is a contract that ''derives'' its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset, index, or interest rate, and is often simply called the "underlying". Derivatives can be use ...

equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership *Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the diff ...

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

Options Option or Options may refer to: Computing *Option key, a key on Apple computer keyboards *Option type, a polymorphic data type in programming languages *Command-line option, an optional parameter to a command *OPTIONS, an HTTP request method ...

and

futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

are by far the most common equity derivatives, however there are many other types of equity derivatives that are actively traded.

Equity options

Equity options are the most common type of equity derivative.Investopedia.com—Equity derivatives
/ref> They provide the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) a quantity of stock (1 contract = 100 shares of stock), at a set price (strike price), within a certain period of time (prior to the expiration date).

Warrants

, a warrant is a

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

that entitles the holder to buy stock of the company that issued it at a specified price, which is much lower than the stock price at time of issue. Warrants are frequently attached to bonds or preferred stock as a sweetener, allowing the issuer to pay lower interest rates or dividends. They can be used to enhance the yield of the bond, and make them more attractive to potential buyers.

Convertible bonds

Convertible bonds are bonds that can be converted into shares of

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a compan ...

in the issuing

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

, usually at some pre-announced ratio. It is a

hybrid security Hybrid securities are a broad group of securities that combine the characteristics of the two broader groups of securities, debt and equity. Hybrid securities pay a predictable (either fixed or floating) rate of return or dividend until a certai ...

with debt- and equity-like features. It can be used by investors to obtain the upside of equity-like returns while protecting the downside with regular bond-like coupons.

Equity futures, options and swaps

Investors can gain exposure to the equity markets using futures, options and swaps. These can be done on single stocks, a customized basket of stocks or on an index of stocks. These equity derivatives derive their value from the price of the underlying stock or stocks.

Stock market index futures

Stock markets index futures are futures contracts used to replicate the performance of an underlying

stock market index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures a stock market, or a subset of the stock market, that helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance. Two of th ...

. They can be used for hedging against an existing equity position, or speculating on future movements of the index. Indices for futures include well-established indices such as

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of ...

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest marke ...

, DAX,

CAC 40 The CAC 40 (french: CAC quarante ) (''Cotation Assistée en Continu'') is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant stocks among the 100 largest market caps on the E ...

and other G12 country indices. Indices for OTC products are broadly similar, but offer more flexibility.

Equity basket derivatives

Equity basket derivatives are futures, options or swaps where the underlying is a non-index basket of shares. They have similar characteristics to equity index derivatives, but are always traded OTC (over the counter, i.e. between established institutional investors), as the basket definition is not standardized in the way that an equity index is. These are used normally for correlation trading.

Single-stock futures

Single-stock futures In finance, a single-stock future (SSF) is a type of futures contract between two parties to exchange a specified number of stocks in a company for a price agreed today (the futures price or the strike price) with delivery occurring at a specified ...

are exchange-traded futures contracts based on an individual underlying security rather than a stock index. Their performance is similar to that of the underlying equity itself, although as futures contracts they are usually traded with greater leverage. Another difference is that holders of long positions in single stock futures typically do not receive dividends and holders of short positions do not pay dividends. Single-stock futures may be cash-settled or physically settled by the transfer of the underlying stocks at expiration, although in the United States only physical settlement is used to avoid speculation in the market.

Equity swap

An equity swap is an exchange of future cash flows between two parties that allows each party to diversify its income for a specified period of time while still holding its original assets. The two sets of nominally equal cash flows are exchanged as per the terms of the swap, which may involve an equity-based cash flow (such as from a stock asset) that is traded for a fixed-income cash flow (such as a benchmark rate), but this is not necessarily the case. Besides diversification and tax benefits, equity swaps also allow large institutions to hedge specific assets or positions in their portfolios.

Exchange-traded derivatives

Other examples of equity derivative securities include

exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product, i.e. they are traded on stock exchanges. ETFs are similar in many ways to mutual funds, except that ETFs are bought and sold from other owners throughout th ...

s and Intellidexes.

References

{{Derivatives market Derivatives (finance) Options (finance)