Question 3 [30 marks]

Fisher Black manages the $60 million equity portion of Gamma Corporation's pension assets. In late August 2019 Gamma announced that it was downsizing its workforce and would be offering early retirement to many of the older employees. The impact on the portfolio Fisher manages would be an anticipated $10 million withdrawal over the next 4 months. The stock has been good for the past 5 years, but recently there have been signs of bearishness. Fisher is concerned about the drop is asset prices before the $10 million is withdrawn from the portfolio. Fisher runs a fairly aggressive portfolio with a beta, , of 1.2, relative to the S&P500

Index. The following were the prevailing S&P500 futures prices:

Expiration SEP19 DEC19 MAR20

Contract Value $250 * Index 2088.50 2100.00 2110.50

a) How much of the portfolio should Fisher have hedged? Justify your answer. b) Design a hedge based on your answer to part a) above.

Hint:

q=(n/ f)

i.e._h=beta ;_=n size_of _=spot_ position; f =size_of _one_ futures_contract