Callable bull/bear contract

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A callable bull/bear contract, or CBBC in short form, is a derivative financial instrument that provides investors with a leveraged investment in underlying assets, which can be a single stock, or an index. CBBC is usually issued by third parties, mostly investment banks, but neither by stock exchanges nor by asset owners. It was first introduced in Europe and Australia in 2001, and it is now popular in United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Hong Kong. CBBC is actively traded among investors in Europe and Hong Kong, which is partially due to the fact that it can cater to individual investors' behavioral biases (like lottery preferences). [1]

Contents

Principle

CBBC has two types of contracts, callable bull contract and callable bear contract, which are always issued in the money. By investing in a callable bull contract, investors are bullish on the prospect of the underlying asset and intend to capture its potential price appreciation. Conversely, investors buying a callable bear contract are bearish on the prospect of the underlying asset and try to make a profit in a falling market.

CBBC is typically issued at a price that represents the difference between the spot price of the underlying asset and the strike price of the CBBCs, plus a small premium (which is usually the funding cost). The strike price can be equal to or lower (bull)/higher (bear) than the call price. The call price is also referred to as "stop loss", "trigger point", "knockout point" or "barrier" by different traders.

However, CBBC will expire at a predefined date or will be called immediately by the issuers when the price of the underlying asset reaches a call price before expiry. [2]

See also

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Craig Woodworth Holden is the Finance Department Chair and Gregg T. and Judith A. Summerville Chair of Finance at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His research focuses on market microstructure. He is secretary-treasurer of the Society for Financial Studies. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Markets. His M.B.A. and Ph.D. are from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. He received the Fama-DFA Prize for the second best paper in capital markets published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2009, the Spangler-IQAM Award for the best investments paper published in the Review of Finance in 2017-2018, and the Philip Brown Prize for the best paper published in 2017 using SIRCA data. His research has been cited more than 4,300 times. He has written two books on financial modeling in Excel: Excel Modeling in Investments and Excel Modeling in Corporate Finance. He has chaired 22 dissertations, been a member or chair of 62 dissertations, and serves on the program committees of the Western Finance Association and European Finance Association.

References

  1. Can financial innovation succeed by catering to behavioral preferences? Evidence from a callable options market, Journal of Financial Economics, 128(1): 38-65, April 2018. (by Xindan Li, Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, Xuewei Yang) https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.01.010
  2. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-10-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)