CFA｜

问题如下：

Which of the following statements best describes the payoff from a forward contract?

选项：

A.

The buyer has more to gain going long than the seller has to lose going short.

B.

The buyer profits if the price of the underlying at expiration exceeds the forward price.

C.

The gains from owning the underlying versus owning the forward contract are equivalent.

解释：

B is correct. The buyer is obligated to pay the forward price F0(T) at expiration and receives an asset worth ST, the price of the underlying. The contract effectively pays off ST – F0(T), the value of the contract at expiration. The buyer therefore profits if ST > F0(T).

A is incorrect because the long and the short are engaged in a zero-sum game. This is a type of competition in which one participant’s gains are the other’s losses, with their payoffs effectively being mirror images.

C is incorrect because although the gain from owning the underlying and the gain from owning the forward are both driven by ST, the price of the underlying at expiration, they are not the same value. The gain from owning the underlying would be ST – S0, the change in its price, whereas the gain from owning the forward would be ST – F0(T), the value of the forward at expiration.