A trader owns 100,000 units of a particular asset and decides to hedge the value of her

position with futures contracts on another related asset. Each futures contract is written on 5,000 units. The spot price of the asset that is owned is $76 and the standard deviation of the

change in this price over the life of the hedge is estimated to be $1.33. The futures price of

the related asset is $80 and the standard deviation of the change in this futures price over the life of the hedge is $1.55. The coefficient of correlation between the spot price change and futures

price change is 0.92.

(a) What is the minimum variance hedge ratio?

(b) Should the hedger take a long or short futures position?

(c) What is the optimal number of futures contracts with no tailing of the hedge?

(d) What is the optimal number of futures contracts with tailing of the hedge?