Your firm has a $3M floating loan which is linked to the prime rate. The loan rate will be adjusted In five months. The duration of the floating loan is .4 year (4/10 year).

As financial manager, you recommend that the firm hedge the loan. The instrument to be used is Eurodollar futures priced at 97.85. How many contracts should be used to achieve this goal? Please state long or short.

The regression between the prime rate and the Eurodollar rate yields a beta of 1.2.