You are the financial risk manager for a firm. You have the following issues to resolve.

You are in a short futures contract to sell 5,000 bushels of wheat for 450 cents per bushel. The initial margin was $3,000 and the maintenance margin is $2,000. You need to determine at what price would force a margin call.

You are currently paying LIBOR +0.3% in debt payments. It is possible to get a financial intermediary willing to enter a swap. The intermediary wants to get at least 0.03% and the counterparty is currently paying a fixed rate of 5.2%.

You have an asset that pays 4.7% that you wish to transform into a floating rate. You know of a counter party currently receiving LIBOR -0.3%. Any deal would need to be agreed to by both parties.

You see that three put options on a stock with strike prices of $55, $60, and $65 are $3, $5, and $8, respectively. You have the ability to use those options to create a butterfly spread.

Your company has just discovered a gold deposit. It will take 6 months to begin the mining operation and it will extract continuously for 5 years. Futures contracts on gold are available with delivery every 2 months. Discuss how the futures markets can be used for hedging.

Assignment:

Write up how you would address the three scenarios. Explain what it does for the cash flow of the firm. If there prices where you gain or lose money be sure to address that as well