Answer:
0.9; 100 million; 90 million; 2,143
Explanation:
The new fuel's price change has a standard deviation that is 50% greater than price changes in gasoline futures prices.
So, if standard deviation of future prices is taken as '1' then for spot price it will be 50% higher, i.e 1.5
The hedge ratio:
= Correlation ร (standard deviation of spot price รท Standard deviation of future prices)
= 0.6 ร (1.5 รท 1)
= 0.9
The company has an exposure of 100 million gallons of the new fuel.
Gallons in future gasoline:
= Hedge ratio ร 100 million gallons of the new fuel
= 0.9 ร 100
= 90 million
Each contract is on 42,000 gallons, then
Number of gasoline futures contracts should be traded:
= 90,000,000 รท 42,000
= 2,142.9 or 2,143