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DIPTI SHETTY- 42
RIDDHI KHANDARE-19
A central idea in modern finance is the law of one price. This states that
in a competitive market, if two assets are equivalent from the point of
view of risk and return, they should sell at the same price.
If the price of the same asset is different in two markets, there will be
operators who will buy in the market where the asset sells cheap and
sell in the market where it is costly. This activity termed as arbitrage,
involves the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same or essentially
similar security in two different markets for advantageously different
prices.
Meaning:
If the market prices do not allow for profitable arbitrage, the prices are
said to constitute an arbitrage equilibrium or arbitrage-free market
Conditions for arbitrage:
•The same asset does not trade at the same price on all markets ("the law
of one price").
•Two assets with identical cash flows do not trade at the same price.
•An asset with a known price in the future does not today trade at its future
price discounted at the risk-free interest rate (or, the asset does not have
negligible costs of storage; as such, for example, this condition holds for
grain but not for securities).
Arbitrage is not simply the act of buying a product in one market and
selling it in another for a higher price at some later time. The transactions
must occur simultaneously to avoid exposure to market risk, or the risk that
prices may change on one market before both transactions are complete.
In practical terms, this is generally only possible with securities and
financial products which can be traded electronically.
Requirements:
Examples
Stock and stock futures - Buying a stock and selling a single stock futures
contract.
Stock on different exchanges - Buying a stock on one exchange and selling the
stock on another exchange.
Mergers - Buying the stock of a company being acquired, and selling the stock of
the acquiring company.
Operational issues:
Consider the case of hike in onion prices seen in India a few years ago.
Existing arbitrage opportunities:
The launch of the equity derivative markets in India has given rise to a
whole new world of arbitrage.
The shares are sold in the cash segment and bought in the futures
segment (to reverse out the original transaction) on or before the
expiry date of the futures contract.
In case the share price rises before expiry of the contract, some
additional margin (mark to market margin) is given to the derivatives
clearing member from the Rs. 15 kept aside.
The first risk is the trade execution risk. While all care is taken while
executing trades, there is a difference in the price at which trades finally
get executed and the price that is targeted at the time of initiation of the
trade. These differences arise on account of various reasons such as
overload on trading systems of the exchange, sudden price volatility,
connectivity speed etc.
The returns from arbitrage activity vary from month to month. Experience
has shown that these are typically better than those being offered by
banks on fixed deposits or those on fixed income mutual funds.