Maverick Manufacturing, Inc., must purchase gold in three months for use in its operations. Maverick’s management has estimated that if the price of gold were to rise above $1,530 per ounce, the firm would go bankrupt. The current price of gold is $1,450 per ounce. The firm’s chief financial officer believes that the price of gold will either rise to $1,605 per ounce or fall to $1,340 per ounce over the next three months. Management wishes to eliminate any risk of the firm going bankrupt. Maverick can borrow and lend at the risk-free EAR of 6.50 percent.

a. Should the company buy a call option or a put option on gold? To avoid bankruptcy, what strike price and time to expiration would the company like this option to have?

b. How much should such an option sell for in the open market?

c. If no options currently trade on gold, is there a way for the company to create a synthetic option with identical payoffs to the option just described? If there is, how would the firm do it?

d. How much does the synthetic option cost? Is this greater than, less than, or equal to what the actual option costs? Does this make sense?