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Please help in answering the attached 5 sub-parts based on the given information New Mexico State University uses natural gas for steam-producing boilers and the
Please help in answering the attached 5 sub-parts based on the given information
New Mexico State University uses natural gas for steam-producing boilers and the gas-fired cogeneration turbine at the central utility plant. The facility manager is concerned that the price of natural gas, which has been at historical lows over the last ten years, will increase over the summer months, substantially increasing the University's fuel costs when they purchase gas at the beginning of the winter. The management team would like to hedge their projected winter natural gas use (250,000 mmBtu) using futures contracts. Today the natural gas spot market is trading at 2.980 per mmBtu. November natural gas futures are trading at $3.338 per mmBtu. Based on prices observed over the last three years management expects that spot prices will be $0.30 over futures in November when the University purchases its natural gas for the winter. One futures contract represents 10,000 mmBtu. (a) What should the management team do in the futures market in order to fully hedge their price risk (position and number of contracts? Why? b) When the management team makes its monthly report to the University president, what price should they tell the president the University should expect to pay for natural gas this coming winter? That is, what is NMSU's expected hedge price? In November, when the management team is ready to purchase natural gas for the upcoming winter, natural gas is trading for $3.20 per mmBtu in the spot market. Nov '17 futures are trading at $2.75 per mmBtu. (c) What price was management team able to obtain given that they chose to hedge in the futures market? That is, what is NMSU's realized hedge price? (d) When the president learns of the realized price obtained by the management team he questions their actions indicating that they have misled him - The price you received net of your actions in the futures market is not equal to the price you "quoted" him prior to the hedge. What should the management team say to the president? (e) After you calm the president down in part (d) he com plains that you should not have hedge in the futures market because you would have been better off simply purchasing gas in the spot market. What do you say to him
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