Trading & Markets

Hedging

Taking an offsetting position to reduce exposure to a particular risk.

Hedging removes a risk you did not want; it does not remove risk. Delta hedging an option leaves gamma, vega and theta - which is the position you actually intended.

Basis risk is the standard failure: hedging with a correlated but non-identical instrument leaves residual exposure, and correlations tend to break precisely when the hedge is needed.

The cost. A perfect hedge eliminates the profit along with the risk. Every real hedge is a decision about which risks to keep, not an elimination of risk.

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