What is a hedge and how to use it in investing

Hedging is one of the strategies experienced investors widely use to protect their capital. In this article, we will explain why the hedge has such an essential meaning in the stock market. Do you want to become a professional hedger? Then read on.

What is the meaning of hedge?

First of all, let’s define what a hedge is. Its simplest meaning in the share market is to “take measures to reduce danger and risk”. Hedging in finance is strategic decision-making that tries to limit risks in financial assets. Prices of securities are prone to unwanted and unexpected changes in a short amount of time. Such changes often lead to the owner scoring a loss in his assets’ value.

Taking offsetting positions in derivatives or any other securities that correspond to a current position is a common hedging strategy. Other types of hedges can be built using tools such as diversification. It not only shields an investor from different kinds of risk but also improves the efficiency of the market.

How a hedge works?

Investors and money managers use hedging to lower and manage risk exposure. Hedging strategies are essential to many Plan Bs to your Plan As – i.e., your initial investments. Hedges are the emergency option if your core financial plans do not work out. They are the insurance program for your assets and financial dealings. When you purchase a brand-new car, you consider it a significant investment and hope to make the most out of it. Therefore, an insurance policy chips in by lending you a backup plan in case your car gets involved in any unfortunate accident or situation. Hedges work the same way.

Just like insurance does not come without a fee, hedging also involves potential costs. It entails a trade-off between risk and return. While it mitigates danger and risk, it also lessens potential rewards that may be made. Continuing from our previous example, even if your dream automobile may be insured in the event of an accident, the insurance cost is wasted if an accident never happens.

Note! While insurance and hedging may be similar, it is crucial to note that the latter is more complicated than the former. Hedging by no means ever guarantees full risk mitigation.

How does hedging work?

In the realm of investing, using derivatives is the most popular method of hedging. Derivatives are contracts whose values are measured by the underlying assets and move in correspondence to the value of those assets. These include options, swaps, futures, and forward contracts. Stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, indices, and interest rates are examples of underlying assets.

The “hedge ratio”, or delta, measures how well a derivative hedge works. It measures how much a derivative’s price changes for every USD the underlying asset’s price changes. The higher the hedge ratio, the more immune your portfolio is to potential losses.

There are multiple ways to hedge your savings and investments. The downside risk of the underlying security the investor wants to hedge will probably influence the specific approach and the cost of instruments.

Hedging can prove to be costly because the cost rises as the downside risk does. A longer-term option tied to a more volatile investment will cost more to hedge because downside risk tends to increase with higher volatility levels and with time. Only after careful analysis of the markets, economy, and history can one conclude whether a high cost is worth it.

Hedging through diversification

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket is a proverb that is always relevant, and it holds, especially in finance. When an investor diversifies, they make investments that do not move in the same direction. Diversification involves investing in several unrelated assets so that if one fails, the others will gain. In other words, if the price of assets rises, other securities in a diversified portfolio will not necessarily see a price increment.

Diversifying a portfolio strategically to decrease certain risks may also be called a hedge, although a basic one. For instance, you may purchase shares from a hotel, a school, and a clothing brand. The other investments will be unaffected if a downturn happens to the tourist sector where the hotel operates since they are unrelated.

Other ways of hedging

Let us go through a few more hedging techniques.

Arbitrage

For most financial experts, arbitrage is the essential meaning of hedging in the stock market and trading. It involves purchasing and selling a product right away for a higher price in another market, producing modest but consistent gains. This technique is most frequently applied in hedging stocks.

The arbitrage tactic is relatively straightforward yet highly ingenious: buy for less and sell for more when the opportunity arises. For instance, a boy buys a pack of exclusive limited edition cards from a store downtown. He sells the pack for a higher price uptown, where people are willing to pay more. The difference is what he earns and is called the arbitrage in the financial market.

Average down

The average down-hedging technique is purchasing more units of a specific product even though its cost or selling price has recently decreased. Stock investors frequently use this method of hedging. They acquire more shares at a lower price if the price of a stock they have already bought drops. The gains from the second buy may then balance out losses from the first if the price increases to a point between two buy prices. 

Spread hedging

Moderate price falls are extremely frequent in the index sector and are also very unpredictable. A bear put spread is a popular hedging method in these circumstances. When a trader or investor anticipates a moderate to a significant decrease in the price of a security or asset, they may use a bear put spread to lower the cost of holding the option transaction.

Buying put options and selling the same amount of puts on the same asset with the same expiration date and a lower strike price results in a bear put spread. The difference between the two strike prices, less the net cost of the options, is equivalent to the maximum profit possible utilizing this method.

Risks of hedging

Although hedging is a method for reducing risk, it’s important to remember that practically all tactics have disadvantages. As was already established, hedging is imperfect and does not guarantee future success or the mitigation of losses.

You should think about hedging in terms of its pros and cons. Since this rarely, if ever, results in a profit, it is worth remembering that a successful hedge is one that only reduces losses.

Hedging and the everyday investor

Most investors will never use hedging. Many of them are unlikely ever to trade a derivative contract. One reason is that long-term investors, such as those saving for retirement, usually ignore a security’s daily volatility. Short-term fluctuations are not significant in these situations since investment is expected to rise in value along with the market.

It seems that buy-and-hold investors have little to no incentive to learn anything about hedging. However, since well-known companies often practice hedging and investors may follow them, it is helpful to understand what it provides. It helps to better understand the actions of significant market players.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Let us go through some of the FAQs that beginner investors ask.

What is hedging against risk?

An approach for reducing the risks associated with financial assets is hedging. It employs market tactics or financial instruments to reduce the risk of unfavorable price changes. To put it another way, you need to hedge one investment by opening trade in another.

What are some examples of hedging?

Hedging examples include purchasing property insurance, using derivatives like options or futures to counteract losses in underlying investment assets, and assuming new foreign exchange positions. Hedging strategies also include avoiding losses from changes in one’s current currency holdings while maintaining some upside potential. Some of the popular techniques are:

1. Diversification;
2. Derivatives;
3. Average Down;
4. Arbitrage.

Is hedging an imperfect science?

In investing, hedging is complex and is viewed as an imperfect science. The ideal hedge would altogether remove risk from a position or portfolio. In other words, the hedge has an absolute negative correlation to the asset at risk. Even the ideal hedge, however, is not free of expense.

The bottom line

We hope this article has helped you understand the definition of hedge and you have found the answer to the question of what hedging is in stock market trading. Understanding hedging is essential for wise investment in shares and many other assets, but it cannot completely reduce the risk of capital loss. You need to learn and practice constantly.