1.Shell Oil Refinery expects to pay for 100,000 barrel of crude oil at close of day on Friday, January 31.They want to hedge their position with crude oil futures.Assume that they enter into the position at close of day on Tuesday, January 28. The size of one crude oil futures is 1,000 barrel.Futures and spot data is provided in the file HW2_data.doc.

a.Describe the position they should enter (long or short, contract month).

b.Compute the hedge ratio using data from HW2_data.xls file.

c.How many contracts do they need to buy or sell?

d.Document the price gain or loss every day that their position is open.

e.What is the total cost after they have closed out their futures position, and made their payment?

f.What is the effective cost per barrel?