The term hedge ratio is a term used to describe the relationship between two investments that are being hedged against each other. A hedge ratio is simply the number of units of one security (the long position) that should be used to hedge another security (the short position). The optimal hedge ratio calculator will help investors figure out what their optimal hedge ratio should be so they can effectively protect their investment while still allowing them to profit from downward movements in an asset’s price.

## Definition

The hedge ratio is a term used in describing relative value trades where a security’s price and the ratio at which it should be hedged are both determined. It allows investors to hedge their investments.

A relative value trade is an investment strategy that involves comparing one security’s value with another security’s value, such as an equity index or bond index.

Hedging is a risk management strategy that involves reducing the potential loss on an open position by offsetting it with similar positions in other markets or instruments. A hedge can also mean insurance against losses caused by market volatility and inflation through options such as futures contracts, swaps, forward contracts, etc.

## Uses

The hedge ratio is the ratio of underlying shares to option contracts that should be covered by options. This means that, for every contract of stock you own, you will also have a certain number of calls or puts on your side. The key thing to note here is that this number changes depending on how many contracts of each security are involved in the trade (i.e., it’s not fixed at some arbitrary whole number).

## Purpose

The purpose of a hedge ratio is to protect against losses when the price of one asset in a portfolio declines by owning an offsetting position in another asset whose price moves in the opposite direction. For example, a hedge ratio of 20 means that you would expect your portfolio to gain if the underlying index rises by $1 and lose equal amounts when it falls by$1. In other words, if you own 10 units of stock with an expected return of 5% and sell short 10 units at an expected rate of 4%, then this will be equivalent to owning 20 units outright at 5%.

## Optimal hedge ratio

The optimal hedge ratio is used as an alternative to calculating delta (a measure of price sensitivity for options).

Delta is a measure of the change in the price of an option given a change in the price of the underlying asset. It’s also called “delta-neutral” when you have no net position—meaning that if you have one buy and sell, it’s considered delta-neutral if you’re even or short.

The problem with delta is that it can be misleading when applied incorrectly: sometimes, there are other values that would be better indicators of how an option behaves relative to its underlying security price changes. The optimal hedge ratio will give you better insight into how much risk your portfolio has overall by factoring in all possible factors affecting market dynamics and not just volatility prices alone.

## FAQ

### What does an optimal hedge ratio of 1 mean?

A hedge ratio of 1, or 100%, means that the open position has been fully hedged.

### What is the minimum hedge ratio?

The minimum variance hedge ratio, or optimal hedge ratio, is the product of the correlation coefficient between the changes in the spot and futures prices and the ratio of the standard deviation of the changes in the spot price to the standard deviation of the futures price.

### What does a high hedge ratio mean?

In general, the higher the hedge ratio, the higher the proportion of the value of the portfolio that is hedged.