In: Finance
A stock that does not pay dividend is trading at $73.1. A riskless bond that will pay $100 after a year is trading at $97. A European call option on the stock with strike price of $64 and one year to maturity is trading at $5.8. Propose an arbitrage strategy and prove that it is an arbitrage strategy.
Given Information
Current Stock Price $73.10
European Call Option Strike Price after 1 year $64.00
Price of call option $5.80
Price of Risk less bond $97.00
Maturity Value of Bond after 1 year $100.00
Developing an Arbitrage strategy
Short sell share - buy a call option - Invest in bond - Redeem maturity value of bond after 1 year - Exercise call option and buy a share / directly buy a share - Square off short selling position
Explanation
1. Short Sell 970 shares and get cash $70,907.00
2. Buy 970 call options with cash from sale proceeds $-5,626.00
Net cash in hand $65,281.00
3. Invest net cash in hand in bonds and get bond units 673 Units
4. Redeem bond units after 1 year (673*100$) $67,300.00
5. Buy a share after 1 year and close short position
If price after 1 year is >64$ exercise call option (970*64) $62,080.00
If price after 1 year is <64$ Buy share from market which obviously costs less
Therefore, maximum price paid is 62080$
Minimum guaranteed Net Proceeds in hand after 1 year (67300-62080) $5,220.00
Arbitrage strategies ensure guaranteed profits without risk. Since 5,220$ is a guaranteed profit without risk. This is an arbitrage strategy.
*Assumption: Commission for short selling shall be less than 5220$. Moreover, no short selling fee is not given in question, hence this strategy is effective