The Monochrome Company manufactures monochrome-B gadgets. Since purchasers of monochrome-B gadgets buy in large quantities every three or four months, the Monochrome Company faces inventory risk of fluctuations in the price of monochrome-B gadgets while inventory accumulates between sales. To hedge this risk, the Monochrome Company can use a futures contract on monochrome-A gadgets, which specifies that one contract is for the delivery of 1,000 monochrome-A gadgets. The minimum variance hedge ratio between the spot price of monochrome- B gadgets and the futures price of monochrome-A gadgets is 1.50, and the company's inventory between sales averages about 12,500 monochrome-B gadgets. a) Should the company long or short the futures contract? Please input long or short in lower case. Your answer: b) How many futures contracts should the company trade? Please input only the number of contracts to trade; round the number to the nearest whole number. Your