Futures vs Options: Understanding the differences and choosing the right derivative instrument (2024)

FAQs

Futures vs Options: Understanding the differences and choosing the right derivative instrument? ›

The choice between futures and options depends on your investment goals and risk tolerance – Both instruments can be used for hedging, but options offer more flexibility and limited risk. Futures offer higher potential profits but also higher risk, while options provide limited profit potential with capped losses.

A future is a contract to buy or sell an underlying stock or other assets at a pre-determined price on a specific date. On the other hand, options contract gives an opportunity to the investor the right but not the obligation to buy or sell the assets at a specific price on a specific date, known as the expiry date.

While options are a type of derivative, there are key distinctions between the two. Obligation vs. right: Derivatives, such as futures contracts, often come with an obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset. Options, on the other hand, provide the right, but not the obligation, to execute the contract.

A derivative can trade on an exchange or over-the-counter. Prices for derivatives derive from fluctuations in the underlying asset. Derivatives are usually leveraged instruments, which increases their potential risks and rewards. Common derivatives include futures contracts, forwards, options, and swaps.

Options and futures contracts are both standardized agreements traded on an exchange such as the NYSE, NASDAQ, BSE, or NSE. A futures contract only allows trading of the underlying asset on the date specified in the contract, whereas options can be exercised at any time before they expire.

The choice between futures and options depends on your investment goals and risk tolerance – Both instruments can be used for hedging, but options offer more flexibility and limited risk. Futures offer higher potential profits but also higher risk, while options provide limited profit potential with capped losses.

Futures have several advantages over options in the sense that they are often easier to understand and value, have greater margin use, and are often more liquid. Still, futures are themselves more complex than the underlying assets that they track.

For example, if you buy a futures contract for 100 barrels of oil at ₹50 per barrel, you are obligated to buy the oil for ₹50 per barrel even if the market price of oil has risen to ₹60 per barrel by the expiration date. The opposite is true if you sell a futures contract.

Options are derivatives contracts that give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to either buy or sell a fixed amount of an underlying asset at a set price on or before the contract expires. Used as a hedging device, options contracts can reduce risk for investors.

Why are futures called derivatives? ›

The specified time in the future when delivery and payment occur is known as the delivery date. Because it derives its value from the value of the underlying asset, a futures contract is a derivative.

Forward and futures contracts are financial instruments that allow market participants to offset or assume the risk of a price change of an asset over time.

Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their value from an underlying asset, index, or reference rate. Examples of derivatives include futures contracts, options contracts, swaps, and forward contracts.

Where futures and options are concerned, your level of tolerance of risk may be a contributing variable, but it's a given that futures are more risky than options. Even slight shifts that take place in the price of an underlying asset affect trading, more than that while trading in options.

Options grant investors the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell assets at a predetermined price, while futures entail an obligation to buy or sell assets at a future date. These instruments serve as tools for investors to hedge existing positions or speculate on future price movements.

Yes, among the many unique features of a futures contract, it allows you to trade (sell) a futures contract before expiry. In fact, most traders enter the market as speculators to profit from futures trading, exit their position before expiry. However, to trade in futures, you need a futures trading strategy.

For example, suppose you purchase a call option for stock at a strike price of Rs 200 and the expiration date is in two months. If within that period, the stock price rises to Rs 240, you can still buy the stock at Rs 200 due to the call option and then sell it to make a profit of Rs 240-200 = Rs 40.

Futures are derivative financial contracts that obligate the parties to transact an asset at a predetermined future date and price.2 Here, the buyer must purchase or the seller must sell the underlying asset at the set price, regardless of the current market price at the expiration date.

They both entail an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset on a specific date in the future, at the terms decided today. The only difference is that forwards are over the counter (OTC) contracts while futures are exchange traded contracts and hence standardized and also more secure.