In: Finance
Options as Insurance Instruments
Clearly, given that options allow their owners to take certain financial actions in favor of their portfolio objectives, they can be thought of as financial insurance: if the price of the underlying assets moves in an unfavorable direction, the option can be exercised to restrict the losses to be experienced. The value of this form of insurance is affected by both the dynamics of the underlying assets and the type of option used. The overall insurance value of an option is defined by no-arbitrage restrictions on option prices and largely by the exercise time of the option.
You will explore the concept of options as insurance for a financial investment. To Prepare: Review this week’s Learning Resources, as well as other resources you may access and the Internet. Consider the following: In what way(s) are calls a form of financial insurance, as opposed to puts? What information about options and/or their underlying assets would users of options need to determine their insurance value?
Post by Day 3 a 4- to an 8-paragraph analysis of the insurance value of options. Make sure to include responses to the following specific questions:
#1 How is the insurance value of an option determined by the difference between the cost of an option and the cost of a synthetic portfolio? Provide a numerical example.
#2 What factors can make the insurance value of an American option be much greater than that of its European equivalent?
#3 Is there any information that can be derived from the markets on what the insurance value of options is for their actual users (in other words, can we tell who hedges and who speculates with options)? C
learly address each of the questions with 1–3 paragraphs. Make sure you use APA style for your response(s) and properly cite any resources you have used
Options are similar to insurance policies in the following ways:
SR.NO |
INSURANCE POLICIES |
OPTIONS |
---|---|---|
1 |
Insurance policies are bought to protect against unforeseen events |
Options are bought to create a hedge against an existing position. |
2 |
Any amount of insurance policies can be purchased |
Any amount of options can be purchased |
3 |
With an insurance policy if a claim is not made the policy becomes worthless at the end of its time |
Options have a fixed life and expire worthless. This means that whenever one purchases an option he loses the premium if the option is not exercised |
4 |
Pricing of an insurance policy is based on several factors like age, location, sex,etc. |
Pricing of an option is based on volatility of the underlying |
Options are mainly of two types:
A call option gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to purchase the underlying security and is bought when the prices are expected to go up whereas a put option gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to sell the underlying security and is bought when the prices are expected to go down. Thus both call options and put options are very similar as instruments of financial insurance.
The major difference in these two types of options being used as financial insurance is mathematical in nature. When the price rises the increase in price is unlimited and can go to infinity. However when the price falls he decrease in price is limited and will only go up to zero. Thus the gains from a call option are unlimited whereas the gains from a put option are limited.
Another important point worth taking note of is the speed with which prices ascend or desend. Rise in prices are generally steady and structured whereas fall in prices are fast and governed by human emotions.
Hence, we can conclude that call options are a better form of financial insurance as against put options.