In March, Jim Jones, Treasury Manager for the Julius Jones Jim Corporation, plans to purchase $1,000,000 of 91-day T-bills for the company’s Short-Term portfolio when that amount of cash comes in to the company in May. At this time, the 91-day T-bill discount rate is 1.670%, implying a price of $1,000,000 [1 – (.0167 x 91/360)] = $995,778.61.
At this time, on the CME Group website, the May 2018 futures price for 90-day Eurodollar CD, the IMM index price is quoted as 97.695 (implying a discount rate of 100% - 97.695% = 2.305%), and each contract is for $ 1 million, implying a contract price of $1,000,000 [1 – (.02305 x 90/360)] = $ 994,237.50.
QUESTIONS
a. Suppose Jim wants to hedge his spot position against a fall in rates, that would make the purchase of the T-bills more expensive in May with a purchase of 1 Eurodollar CD contract, what position should he take short or long, and explain why?
Now,
b. Suppose in May, the T-bill discount rate falls to 1.47% and the Eurodollar CD discount rate falls to 2.105%, what is the gain or loss on the spot position and on the futures position, and the net hedging result?