finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

, a stock market index future is a cash-settled

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The item tr ...

on the value of a particular

stock market index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an Index (economics), index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calcul ...

. The turnover for the global market in exchange-traded equity index futures is notionally valued, for 2008, by the

Bank for International Settlements The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is an international financial institution which is owned by member central banks. Its primary goal is to foster international monetary and financial cooperation while serving as a bank for central bank ...

at US$130 trillion.

Uses

Stock index futures are used for hedging,

trading Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market (economics), market. Traders generally negotiate throu ...

, and

investments Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

. Index futures are also used as leading indicators to determine market sentiment. Hedging using stock index futures could involve hedging against a portfolio of shares or equity index options. Trading using stock index futures could involve, for instance, volatility trading (The greater the volatility, the greater the likelihood of profit taking – usually taking relatively small but regular profits). Investing via the use of stock index futures could involve exposure to a market or sector without having to actually purchase shares directly. There are cases of equity hedging with index futures. One case is where a portfolio 'exactly' reflects the index (this is unlikely) so that the portfolio is perfectly hedged via the index future. Another case is where a portfolio does not entirely reflect the index (this is more likely to be the case). Here, the degree of correlation between the underlying asset and the hedge is not high. So, your portfolio is unlikely to be 'fully hedged'. Equity index futures and index options tend to be in liquid markets for close to delivery contracts. They trade for cash delivery, usually based on a multiple of the underlying index on which they are defined (for example £10 per index point). OTC products are usually for longer maturities, and are usually a form of options product. For example, the right but not the obligation to cash delivery based on the difference between the designated strike price, and the value of the designated index at the ''expiration date''. These are traded in the wholesale market, but are often used as the basis of guaranteed equity products, which offer retail buyers a participation if the equity index rises over time, but which provides guaranteed

return of capital Return of capital (ROC) refers to principal payments back to "capital owners" (shareholders, partners, unitholders) that exceed the growth (net income/taxable income) of a business or investment. It should not be confused with Rate of Return (ROR) ...

if the index falls. Sometimes these products can take the form of

exotic option In finance, an exotic option is an option which has features making it more complex than commonly traded vanilla options. Like the more general exotic derivatives they may have several triggers relating to determination of payoff. An exotic op ...

s (for example Asian options or Quanto options).

Pricing

Forward prices of equity indices are calculated by computing the cost of carry of holding a long position in the constituent parts of the index. This will typically be the

risk-free interest rate The risk-free rate of return, usually shortened to the risk-free rate, is the rate of return of a hypothetical investment with scheduled payments over a fixed period of time that is assumed to meet all payment obligations. Since the risk-free r ...

, since the cost of investing in the equity market is the loss of interest minus the estimated

dividend yield The dividend yield or dividend–price ratio of a share is the dividend per share divided by the price per share. It is also a company's total annual dividend payments divided by its market capitalization, assuming the number of shares is constan ...

on the index, since an equity investor receives the sum of the dividends on the component stocks. Since these dividends are paid at different times, and are difficult to predict, estimation of the forward price can be difficult, particularly if there are not many stocks in the chosen index. Indices for futures are the well-established ones, 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 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices and in ...

, FTSE, DAX,

CAC 40 The CAC 40 () () is a Benchmark (computing), benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant stocks among the 100 largest market capitalization, market caps on the Euronext Pa ...

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

Notes

{{Authority control Derivatives (finance)

Uses

Pricing

See also

Notes