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DISCLAIMER & IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Important Information

This website (www.finiTor.in), hereinafter referred to as (the Website) is the exclusive property of Finitor Financial Services Private Limited, a company limited by shares, registered in Mumbai under the Companies Act, 2013, having CIN U74999MH2016PTC281810 (hereinafter referred to as FFSPL) and Finitor Insurance Marketing Private Limited, a company limited by shares, registered in Mumbai under the Companies Act, 2013, having CINU67200MH2017PTC290995 (hereinafter referred to as FIMPL).


FFSPL is enrolled as AMFI Registered Mutual Fund Advisor (ARMFA) and has been assigned AMFI Registration Number ARN-118670 (license copy provided). FFSPL is empanelled with various NBFCs and Housing Finance Companies. FFSPL is also registered as Authorised Person on BSE, NSE, MCX & NCDEX (license copy provided).


FIMPL is registered with Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) as Insurance Marketing Firm having Registration Code: IMF186576860620170131 (license copy provided).


By accessing and using this website (the “Website”) including but not limited to all its webpages, contents, images, videos, texts, reports, social media (including but not limited to YouTube, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter) pages, contents, links, images, videos and other third-party website links and their webpages, contents, images, texts, reports,their social media pages and any web page hereof, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions below. Reference to these general terms of use should be made each time you access and use the Website.


FFSPL and/or FIMPL offer and intend to offer a wide range of financial and insurance (Life, General & Health) products and services including third party products & services to group companies, associates, affiliate companies and to wide array of customers that may include but not limited to retail, partnership firms, corporates, trusts and institutional customers of FFSPL and/or FIMPL as permitted and allowed by the various governing and regulatory bodies from time to time that may include but not limited to SEBI, RBI, various exchanges (BSE, NSE, MCX and NCDEX), IRDAI and AMFI.


The Website, its services and contents are provided by FFSPL and/or FIMPL. The information and data may have been gathered through various sources including third parties. No warranty, guarantee or representation, endorsement whether expressed or implied is given as to the timeliness, accuracy, reliability or completeness of any information and data and no liability is accepted for any errors or omissions in such information whether provided by us, our associates, vendors and third parties. FFSPL and/or FIMPL, its directors, employees, associates, vendors do not accept any responsibility regarding non-infringement, security or freedom from computer viruses in relation to contents. FFSPL and/or FIMPL do not accept any responsibility for any information contained in any third-party website accessed via a hyperlink (any link) from the Website. No entity whether individual or corporate may link their website into the Website without the express written permission of FFSPL and/or FIMPL. The content, accuracy and opinions expressed in such third-party websites are not checked, analysed, monitored or endorsed by us. Access to any third-party website is at the user’s own risk.


Some of the information and contents on this Website may contain projections or other forward looking statements regarding future events or future financial or fundamental performance of that may include but not limited to Indian and global economy, countries, markets, companies, derivative contracts, securities, mutual funds, interest rates and insurance products. Actual events or results may differ materially. No information on the Website constitutes investment, trading, tax, legal or any other advice.


All contents, products and services referred to on the Website are subject to change without notice. FFSPL and/or FIMPL may amend the Website including this Legal Information section, products and services at any time without notice to the user(s). FFSPL and/or FIMPL is under no obligation to update the Website or to correct inaccuracies which may become apparent. FFSPL and/or FIMPL shall have no liability for any direct, indirect, consequential or special losses or damages of any kind whatsoever arising from or in connection with any use of the Website or its contents.


The marketing material / document / advertisement is prepared and printed by FFSPL and/or FIMPL for information purpose only. The information may have been taken from trade and statistical services and other sources. FFSPL and/or FIMPL and any of its employees, directors, associates and affiliates do not warrant about the completeness of any of the information mentioned. We may also use third party marketing materials, brochures, leaflets, prospectus, audio, visual, audio-visual materials, they too are distributed only for information purpose only. This should neither be construed as solicitation nor offering advice for the purpose of the purchase or sale of any securities, funds, deposits, insurance products, equity, financial and commodity derivatives, spot commodity or any other financial instrument.


Please note that information contained on the Website and any other communication (email, marketing materials) should not be construed/used/read as professional advice. The information, contents and communications provided on the Website and other communications are for personal use and informational purposes only and the contents have not been prepared with any specific investment objective, financial situation or particular need of any specific recipient in mind. You should obtain advice from a qualified financial expert/advisor having requisite regulatory approval(s) before making any investment decision(s) or you should assess and carefully consider the investment product(s) based on your current financial situation, investment objectives and risk appetite.


The contents, pages, images, videos, texts, reports, social media pages of the Website and third party website links given on the Website are provided to you for general information only and should not be construed/used/read as recommendation(s) for general or specific investment(s), business and/or commercial/financial decision(s). These pages should not be construed/used/read as offer(s) or solicitation(s) for the subscription(s), recommendation(s) for purchase or sale of the securities, derivatives, mutual funds, bonds, deposits, insurance products whether life, general, health or any investment products, mentioned herein, or, in any jurisdiction to any person to whom it is unlawful to make such an invitation or solicitation in such jurisdiction including US and Canada. Accordingly, no warranty whatsoever is given and no liability whatsoever is accepted for any loss arising whether directly or indirectly as a result of you acting based on the information and contents of the Website.


Investments are subject to market risks including the possibility of loss of the principal amount. The value of the derivatives instruments (value of derivatives instruments change because of change in price of the underlying assets), securities/commodities/currencies, mutual funds, certain insurance products or any other financial instrument(s) including interest rates, fluctuate (fall/rise) because of two principal risks, systematic and unsystematic (residual, specific) risks. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns and therefore past performance figures as well as any projection or forecast used in the contents and webpages of the Website are not indication of future performance of any investment product(s).


No information, whether oral or written, obtained by the user through or from this site or from any conversation with FFSPL and/or FIMPL employee or a professional consultant will have the effect of varying this Legal Information.


There is no guarantee/assurance as to returns or profits or capital protection or appreciation. Trading/Investment decision is the sole responsibility of the recipient.


Copyright

FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies reserve all copyright and intellectual property rights to the products and services, content, information and data on the Website. The contents in the Website are protected by copyright and no part or parts hereof may be modified, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted (in any form or by any means), copied, distributed, published, displayed, broadcasted, hyperlinked, used for creating derivative works or used in any other way for commercial or public purposes without the prior written consent of FFSPL and/or FIMPL.


Separate Contracts

The provision of any service and/or product provided by FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies through the Website shall be expressly subject to the particular terms and conditions as contained in the KYC, contract/prospectus and/or offer documents for the supply of such specific service and/or product. Any warranty or representation made in relation to the provision of such service and/or product are, as made in the contract only. FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies make no separate warranty, guarantee, endorsement or representation through the Website or through these general terms of use.


Exclusion of Liability and Indemnity

In no event shall FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies be liable to you for any loss, damage, costs, charges and/or expenses of whatsoever nature and howsoever arising including legal fees on a full indemnity basis, cost of funding and loss or cost incurred by you as a result of or in connection with:

i.     any access, use or the inability to access or use this Website, use of or reliance on the contents of this Website;
ii.    any transaction performed on any web page in the Website;
iii.   any loss or abuse or unauthorized disclosure of information, including customer information;
iv.   any system, server or connection failure, error, omission, interruption, interception, delay in operation or transmission, or computer virus;
v.    any use of or access to any other websites linked to the Website;
vi.  any service, product, information, data, software or other materials obtained from the Website or from any other websites linked to the Website;
vii. breach or violation of any third-party rights, including but not limited to the violation of any proprietary or intellectual property rights or the enforcement of any of these general terms of use.


Governing Law

We hereby expressly disclaim any implied warranties imputed by the laws of any jurisdiction. These general terms of use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India and all parties hereby agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Mumbai, Maharashtra in India. If you don't agree with any of our Disclaimers above please do not read the material on any of our pages. The Website is offered to you on your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions and notices contained herein. Your use of the Website constitutes your agreement to all such terms, conditions and notices.


Products and services referred to in the Website are offered only in jurisdictions where and when they may be lawfully offered by FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies. The contents in the Website are not intended for use by persons and entities (special mention to NRIs, PIOs, foreign residents and overseas corporate bodies and other overseas entities) located in or resident in jurisdictions that restrict the distribution of such materials including US and Canada. Persons accessing these pages are required to inform themselves about and observe any relevant restrictions. You should consult and carefully read the applicable terms and conditions before using the Website.


Privacy and Security

Your privacy is important to us. We are committed to maintain the confidentiality of the personal information that you give us through the Website or our online services. To preserve the confidentiality of all information you provide to us, we maintain the following privacy principles:

i.     We will only collect personal information that we believe to be relevant and required to assist us in providing better customer service and delivery of service(s) and product(s) that are of interest to you.
ii.   To serve you well, we may from time to time work with external organizations, including the associate/affiliate companies of FFSPL and/or FIMPL, to offer other products and services to you. These companies will be required to conform to our privacy policy standards.
iii.    We may be required from time to time to disclose your personal information to governmental or judicial bodies or agencies or governing and regulatory bodies, as and when directed.
iv.  We maintain strict security systems designed to prevent unauthorized access to your personal information by anyone, including our staff. All associate/affiliate companies of FFSPL and/or FIMPL, our staff and third parties with permitted access to your information are specifically required to observe our confidentiality obligations. However, FFSPL and/or FIMPL and their associate/affiliate companies accept no liability whatsoever in case of system, server and Website hacking, gaining unauthorised and non-permitted access of information through illegal means by individuals, employees and third parties.
v.     Like most Websites, this Website uses cookies too. The cookies we use are to help make the Website more user-friendly. You are not required to accept cookies, and you may disable, delete and block cookies from this Website as per your wish and choice.
vi.   We may amend this Policy from time to time and will place any such amendments on this Website. This Policy is not intended to, nor does it, create any contractual rights between FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies and You (users).


Emails, Messages, Chat and Blogs Communication

Emails, messages, chat communications and blogs sent/received to/from FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies over the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be completely secure. FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies will not be responsible for any damages incurred by you if you send/receive such emails, messages, chat and blogs to/from FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies at your/their request, over the Internet through the Website or using other electronic mediums (third party email services, messages, chats, blogs). FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies are not responsible in any manner for direct, indirect, special or consequential damages arising out of the use of such emails, messages, chat and blogs through the Website or other mediums.


Transmission over the Internet

Due to the nature of the Internet, transactions may be subject to interruption, interception, transmission blackout, delayed transmission and incorrect data transmission. Regardless of any security measures taken by us, FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies shall assume no responsibility whatsoever for any loss or expense resulting from such delays, interruptions and/or interceptions.

FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or its’ employees will never ask you for your Password, you are strictly directed not to ever share your any Password with anyone. FFSPL and/or FIMPL, their directors, employees, and/or associates / affiliate companies, assume no responsibility or liability for such acts and/or deeds. You should safeguard your unique User ID and Password by keeping it secret and confidential. Do not share your User ID and Password with anyone or write them down, as you are responsible for all transactions undertaken through your User ID and Password.


It is advisable to take the necessary precautions to protect your personal computer against viruses and other malicious programs. Besides damaging and/or destroying data, viruses and malicious programs can capture your Password keystrokes and other personal information and send them to another person without your consent and misuse it.


FFSPL and/or FIMPL and/or associates / affiliate companies do not represent or warrant that the Website will be available and meet your requirements, that access will not be interrupted, that there will be no delays, failures, errors or omissions or loss of transmitted information, that no viruses or other contaminating or destructive properties will be transmitted or that no damage will occur to your computer system.


You have sole responsibility for adequate protection and back up of data and/or equipment and for undertaking reasonable and appropriate precautions to scan for computer viruses or other destructive properties. We make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, functionality or performance of any third-party software that may be used in connection with the Website.


Collection of Personal Information

Occasionally, FFSPL and/or FIMPL may collect personal information from visitors to the Website and those individuals that participate in a contest or promotion (online or over the telephone, or at one of our branches, events and seminars) and during their personal visit in office or outside office. Such information is only collected from individuals who voluntarily provide us with their personal information. We may use the information to share product(s) and service(s) information, education and other marketing materials, which we think, may be of interest to them. We may also invite visitors to the Website to participate in market research and surveys and other similar activities.


IMPORTANT: By accessing this Website and any of its pages you are agreeing to the terms set out above.

Any reproduction, disclosure or dissemination of these materials by you is prohibited.


This disclaimer should be read in conjunction with other disclaimers specific to various products and services published on the Website.


Mutual Fund Disclaimer

Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.


All investments in mutual funds and securities are subject to market risks and the NAV of the schemes may go up or down depending upon the factors and forces affecting the securities and other markets and there can be no assurance that the fund's objectives will be achieved. Past performance of the Sponsors, AMC/Fund does not indicate the future performance of the Schemes of the Fund.


Finitor Financial Services Private Limited, the Company (limited by shares) is incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013, is enrolled as AMFI Registered Mutual Fund Advisor and has been assigned AMFI Registration Number, ARN-118670.


Insurance Disclaimer

Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation and market risks. It is the responsibility of the customer to understand the limitations of insurance policies and the risks involved, and under no circumstance, form or manner, do we take any liability in such cases. We also recommend you to please read the subject and offer documents carefully.


Users/visitors on this Website are hereby informed that the personal and other information submitted by them on or through this Website will be shared with insurance companies and our employees, directors, affiliate and associate companies will have access to these data.


FIMPL is registered as IRDAI (the Authority) approved Insurance Marketing Firm having Registration Code: IMF186576860620170131.


Exchange Traded Derivatives: Risk Disclosure

Trading derivatives and leveraged products carry risks of losing beyond entire Capital and collaterals deposited as Margin. We in Finitor Financial Services Private Limited believe that it is our duty to make you aware of the high risk the derivatives products carry because of leverage/gearing the products offer.


The risk disclosure here certainly cannot disclose all the risks and other significant aspects of products such as futures and options rather it is an attempt to give you an insight to help you understand the nature of risks involved. It would be important to note that the behaviour of each instruments (futures and options) would vary with the change in underlying assets. Means Reliance Futures (equity derivatives) would behave differently from Gold Futures (commodity derivatives), this is because the price volatility of two different assets would not be identical. Even Reliance Futures having two different expiration will have different implications. Theoretical values of derivatives instruments could be surprisingly different in real world. You should not deal in these products unless you understand their nature and weigh them with the extent of your risk bearing capacity (exposure to risk). Synthetic derivative positions and derivative strategies, a straddle or strangle, may be as risky as a simple long or short positions.


The derivative instruments are highly potent and volatile instruments. At the same time, these are excellent instruments for mitigating risks. The volatile nature of these instruments has encouraged two types of trades,

1. Directional trades – these positions are speculative in nature.Traders are willing to take risk for the high compensation these instruments offer on two counts volatility and leverage.

However, speculative gain was never the intended purpose for the creation of derivatives instruments. These instruments evolved over 100 years for business entities to be able to transfer risk to those who are willing to take risk, the speculators.

2. Risk Mitigation/Hedge positions – the objective of these positionsis not to profit from the favourable price movement of the asset(s). These positions enable entities to shift existing risk that they are not willing to bear by taking counter (reverse) positions and thus they eliminate/reduce the risk of price volatility in the underlying assets (commodity/securities/FX) that the entities are currently exposed to and therefore be able to retain their business margin.


In globalised market and modern business dynamics where the very best technology is available across the world, price has become the major ground for retaining the competitive edge over rivals, derivatives have become an integral aspect of all business models. Almost all major companies throughout the world use derivatives to hedge risks. Not only manufacturing companies but also financial institutions, service providers, shipping companies, commodity traders use these instruments to hedge commodity price risk, security risk, exchange rate risk (FX) and interest rate risk.


A third type of positions are taken by traders in the market is,

3. Arbitrage positions – the objective of these trades is to earn risk free profit; these positions are indifferent to the market movements. Arbitrageurs play an important role in bridging the gap in price anomalies in the market. Proportionately, equal and opposite positions are taken on two (sometimes several) different contracts where underlying assets are same or having high correlation in terms of price variations.


Derivatives

The value of a derivative contract derives from the price of an underlying item (usually spot price), could be an asset e.g. gold, stock, currency or an index, interest rates. Through a derivative contract specific financial risk can be traded. Derivative contracts traded on exchanges are standardised contracts where, assets (security/commodity/index), lot size (quantity), quality (in case of commodity or a specific series in case of securities), expiration (date of maturity), settlement type (cash/delivery) are predefined. Standardization improves the liquidity of derivatives because all traders hold similar contracts unlike OTC market. However, the statement does not mean that the exchange traded derivative contracts are more liquid. Only a fraction of the derivatives are traded on exchanges compare to OTC derivatives.


Product manuals and contract specifications carry the details of contracts. All traders should read the contract specifications carefully before initiating trades.


Futures and Options are the two-major exchange traded derivatives instruments in India with different expirations, it is important for derivatives traders to be well versed with respective contract specifications. All major exchanges publish contract specifications and other relevant contract details on their respective websites,

www.nseindia.com www.bseindia.com www.mcxindia.com www.ncdex.com
1. Futures – Future contracts are deferred delivery contracts (sometimes cash settled) where the buyer has an obligation to take delivery and seller has the obligation to give delivery of a specific quantum/quantity of an asset (commodity/security) at a predetermined price (usually set at the time of execution of trade) for delivery at a predefined future date (usually on expiration or within few days of expiration as defined in the contract specification). In cash settled contract the difference is settled in cashbased on settlement price (arrived on the basis of predefined method by the respective exchanges) on the expiration date.Cash settlement is a logical consequence of the use of financial derivatives to trade risk independent of ownership of an underlying item.

2. Options – Option is a type of derivative instrument that gives the buyer (seller) the right (obligation) but not the obligation (right) to buy (sell) in case of call option or sell (buy) in case of put option, a specified quantity (lot size) of an asset at a set price (strike/exercise price) on or before a specific date (maturity/expiry date). Options contracts traded on exchanges are also called listed options. Exchange traded option contracts have predefined strike prices; strike price is also known as exercise price. On expiration underlying assets of the options contracts are bought/sold or settled based on these strike/exercise prices. There are two categories of options,

Call option Put option
Buyers right but not the obligation to buy right but not the obligation to sell
Sellers obligation but not the right to sell obligation but not the right buy

A call option gives the buyer right to buy specified quantity (lot size e.g. 500) of an asset (e.g. Reliance shares) at a predetermined price (strike/exercise price e.g. 1200) on a specified date (expiration date, e.g. last Thursday, May 25, 2017). The seller of the same call option has the obligation to sell the 500 shares of Reliance at Rs. 1200/share on May 25, 2017, if desired by the call buyer.

A put option gives the buyer right to sell specified quantity (lot size e.g. 1500) of an asset (e.g. shares of Tata Motors) at a predetermined price (strike/exercise price e.g. 450) on a specified date (expiration date, e.g. last Thursday, June 29, 2017). The seller of the put option has the obligation to buy the 1500 shares of Tata Motors at Rs. 450/share on June 29, 2017, if desired by the put buyer.

Trading in futures (directional/speculative positions) and selling options carry unlimited liability (risk of loss) beyond the capital one has in his/her futures account (margin account). The positions are subject to mark to market on daily basis that keep the traders informed about the profit and loss sustained against their positions, however there could be situations/events where the traders may lose their entire capital committed to futures account and beyond. NSE and BSE have implemented index based market-wide circuit filters in equity derivative segment, operating price range (band) for currency and interest rate contracts, similarly commodity exchanges have implemented Daily Price Limit (explained separately) across various commodities but that may not prevent unlimited loss in a given situation.

Daily Price Limit: Daily Price Limit is commodity based circuit filter in the price of a commodity (expressed in form of percentage variation) in a day with respect to the previous day close price. Circuit filter provides maximum range within which a contract can be traded during the day. Such circuit filters are different for different commodities.

Buying an option is less risky. One still may lose the entire premium paid to buy an option but that is usually a small portion of the entire contract value. Reward could be very high in relation to risk if the position moves in favour of the traders.


Value-at-Risk

One of the commonly used measure of Risk is Value-at-Risk (VaR), it provides a consolidated view that incorporates a contract’s or a portfolio’s exposure to risk sensitivities. VaR calculates an expected loss amount that may not exceed at a specified confidence interval over a given holding period (usually one or two days), assuming normal market conditions. Higher VaR of a portfolio indicates greater expected loss and exposure to market risks. VaR is a composite risk measure of volatility (historical/implied) as a result of various factors such as interest rate, exchange rate, credit, inflation, equity risks and other risks. VaR gives a consolidated view of different risks in a portfolio.

In addition, investors/traders should be aware of the following risks associated with derivatives trading,

1. Market Risk: market risk refers to general risk in any investment. More appropriately, market risk refers to sensitivity of an asset or portfolio to overall market price movement. Derivatives instruments too are subject to market risk like any other financial and trading instruments. Investors take investment decisions based on assessment of certain news, forward looking reports, technical analysis, expert advice and assumptions, however factors such as monetary and economic policies, socio-political conditions, fiscal and current account deficit, inflation, interest rates, volatility may lead to adverse market movement and therefore the investment decisions may go wrong that can incur huge losses. It is important for the investors/traders to follow discipline in their investment habits and invest/trade with strict stop losses.

2. Counter Party Risk: Derivatives contracts do face counter party risk though at a much-reduced level in exchange traded standardised contracts because of the presence of either in-house clearing & settlement department of the exchange (MCX: MCX Clearing & Settlement Department, NCDEX: In-house clearing) or central clearing house (BSE: ICCL, NSE: NSCCL). The exchange or the central clearing house acts as the counter party to each trade and also have trade and settlement guarantee fund to take care of any eventuality.

3. Liquidity Risk: Liquidity describes the degree to which an asset or securitycan be quickly bought or sold in the market without affecting the asset's price or without incurring the high transaction (impact) cost. The spread between bid and ask refers to transaction cost, wider the spread bigger is the impact cost. The liquidity differs across various derivative contracts. Index (Nifty) futures may have higher liquidity (lower impact cost) compare to individual stock options, at the money index options are generally more liquid than the deep out of/in the money option contracts, near month single stock/commodity futures usually have lower transaction costs than the far month contracts.

Liquidity in derivatives impose serious risk and have huge bearing on the overall gains and losses.

4. Margin Risk: Margin is the collateral (usually cash, approved liquid securities, mutual fund units, gold etc) required to be deposited with the exchange/clearing house (counter party) to cover some or all credit risk the holder (buyer/seller) acquires by holding a derivative contract. It is also called good faith deposit towards the future credit obligations. There are various types of margin, initial margin, exposure margin, premium margin (applicable to buyer of the option) and assignment margin (applicable to sellers of the option on assignment) and mark-to-market.

It should be noted that the margin computation for securities and futures contracts is based on VaR but for a portfolio that comprises both futures and options contracts, a more complex margin computation is carried out through SPAN (Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk) software. To the best of our knowledge commodity exchanges use VaR based margin (since only futures are traded on commodity exchanges) whereas NSE and BSE use SPAN based margin system for FnO segments. We would recommend investors and traders to check the respective exchanges for latest information regarding margining system. Margin is a function of variance (volatility).

The important thing to understand is that initial margin varies across different financial instruments and derivative contracts, margin may not remain same throughout the life of the derivative positions one is holding. Also, they are subject to mark to market several times on intraday and end of the day basis and therefore holders may find difficult to hold all or part of the positions in unfavourable market scenario.

A portfolio of several future and option contracts in the same underlying get the benefit of reduced margin if the risk of the portfolio decreases and vice versa. Similarly calendar spread contracts also get the margin benefit. These margin benefits may be withdrawn near expiration of the contracts and are also subject to review periodically.

5. Collateral Risk: Collateral posted as margin may be approved security that is subject to market risk and value of the collateral may drop in adverse market condition. There is also the risk that the haircuts applicable on the collateral may change and therefore the margin becomes inadequate. In yet another scenario a collateral/security may get dropped from the approved list. Therefore, one may require to post additional cash or securities to make good of margin requirement.

6. Maturity Date Risk: Each exchange traded derivatives have fixed maturity and residual life after which they become worthless. One should be aware of the maturity of a derivative contract and one should select a contract having appropriate life span commensurate with his/her trading strategy.

7. Delivery Risk: In India, most of the financial derivatives are cash settled, however commodity derivatives across many commodities are deliverable. There are several risks associated with physical delivery of commodities, investors should be well aware of the contract specifications and delivery mechanism. Process of delivery for one commodity may be very different from another including corresponding cost. Following facts should be checked,

i.      Tender period
ii.     Tender period margin
iii.    Delivery period
iv.     Delivery period margin
v.      Deliverable lot and units
vi.     Deliverable quality/grade and related discounts and premium
vii.    Delivery allocation date, pay-in/pay-out date of commodity and fund
viii.  Various cost associated with delivery and logistics (warehouse, fumigation, loading/unloading, insurance, taxes, duties, cess and levies etc)
ix.     Delivery centres, basic delivery centre and also discount associated with additional delivery centres

8. Contango and Backwardation: Contango and backwardation are important concepts in the derivative market, more so in the commodities market because of the cyclical nature and different demand and supply scenarios across the year across various commodities. They also may arise because of certain external factors like strike, weather condition, war, trade embargoes etc. Contango and backwardation define basis, and cost of carry helps in computing the theoretical value of future contracts. It is important for derivative traders to understand these terms and their implications.

i. Contango: Contango means a scenario where a future contract trades at a premium compare to the spot price of the same underlying. It is to be remembered that futures contracts on maturity (expiration) converges to spot price.

Futures > Spot

ii. Backwardation: Backwardation is the inverted market scenario where future price trades at a discount to spot.

Futures < Spot

Basis = Spot – Futures (if negative, is contango/normal, converse is backwardation) Strength and weakness in basis determine the probable direction of future price movement.


Strength and weakness in basis determine the probable direction of future price movement.


Futures Price = Spot + Cost of Carry - Yield


In an ideal world of futures market, price of a future contract should be equal to Spot Price + Cost of Carry (cost of holding the asset for a future date) – Yield (any income earned while holding the asset). We have mentioned Yield for the sake of simplicity, however would recommend one to understand the concept of Convenience Yield for better understanding of fundamentals involved in computing theoretical value of future price. In commodities Cost of Carry comprises of Fixed Costs (warehouse cost/storage cost, insurance cost) and Variable Costs (deterioration & obsolescence cost, handling cost, maintenance cost and financial cost).

In financial derivatives, price of single stock future is the difference between Cost of Carry (cost of financing to hold the stock till maturity, interest cost) and Yield (dividend). Computing theoretical value of other financial futures would differ, e.g. future price of a bond.


Difference between basis and cost of carry would present arbitrage opportunity in the market.