grinners said:
Pirocco said:
Silver dealer.
Holds a stock of 10000 ounces.
Takes 2 short positions of 5000 ounces to hedge the 10000 ounces against price drops.
Price rises.
The silver stock gets worth X more.
The futures market runners remove X dollars from his 2 short positions' accounts.
The short position hedge against a silver price drop, undoes the profits on the silver stock.
Reality?
And hence, he has locked in the $1 per ounce profit that he will make per ounce selling to the consumer.
IE: No risk of silver price, simply buying at [sell price minus $1] and selling at [sell price].
He wins and locks in his win with no risk.
There is a price upon contract creation.
That is the agreed-upon price of the contract between a seller and a buyer with a deal in the future.
'Strike price'.
Then there is reality.
'Spot price'.
Depending on this reality (the price trend between contract creation and the agreed-upon date of the future deal), one of both sides of the contract, is losing dollars, and the other side, is gaining dollars. On their margin accounts.
So, you describe it as a 'locked in' profit.
But the strike price is only a part of the story.
Depending on the price trend between contract creation and end, that $1 of the strike price can be added to for ex -$3 on the margin account, resulting in a $1-$3=-$2.
So what you describe as 'locked in win / no risk', is not true.
Dealers have to manage their amount short positions, according to what they think is the downside risk of the price. That managing is not locking in anything. If the dominant market behaviour (selling versus buying) goes against what they thought was the biggest risk (down or up), their position(s) can inflict them a loss that is bigger than the gain on the sales of what is hedged (the underlying, gold, silver, ...).
Too much short positions in a price uptrend, undo all their gains on the sales of the underlying, or even more.
So it's for dealers / anyone with a stock silver that tries to hedge it, crucial to know when to dump or acquire short positions, and how many (in case bigger stocks).
See, a hedge is not a guarantee.
It's an attempt.
It can be as wrong as a stacker that buys high and/or sells low.
Because the price moved in the other direction than you thought. The same applies to anyone that buys/sells silver.
So why then talking about 'locking in wins without risk'?