Delta hedging.

You own $$10,000$ shares of Mercury Ltd$.$ common stock that is currently selling for $$53.$ A call option on Mercury with a strike price of $$53$ is selling at $$4\mathrm{.}21$ and has a delta of $0\mathrm{.}57.$

a$.$ Determine the number of call option contracts necessary to create a delta$-$neutral hedge $($with sign!$).$ contracts.

Round your answer to closest integer.

b$.$ Calculate the total change in portfolio value for a $$0\mathrm{.}50$ increase in the price of Mercury stock, keeping in mind that you can only trade option contracts, not the individual options.

$

Round your answer to the nearest cent.