Saint Petersburg Endowment Fund "SPEF", which supports the activities of the Saint Petersburg Charitable Trust, is relatively new and small in terms of assets under management. The trustees of the endowment have adopted a conservative investment strategy: at the current time, all of the $1 million in assets are equally invested in an S&P 500 Index tracking fund and U.S. Treasury bonds. Right now, the annual dividend yield on the S&P 500 Index fund is 3.0 percent, whereas the annual coupon rate is 4.0 percent for the T-bonds. As the fund manager, you expect that over the next three months the market will be very volatile. Given that the priority of the trustees is to preserve the value of the endowment fund, you are required to use various derivative strategies to protect the assets under management.

a. Discuss the details of two derivative strategies that could be employed to protect the endowments current asset value.

b. Briefly explain the details of derivative-based hedging strategies that can be applied in your field of work. What are the benefits and potential risk factors for undertaking such strategies in lieu of direct cash-oriented investments?