What does it really mean to hedge 25% of a portfolio, and why does one short futures trade do the work of 500 stock sales?
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Sizing the hedge in contracts
Write the target notional as 25% of the $5 million portfolio, the $250,000 notional of one S&P 500 contract at index 1,000, and derive the five contracts to short.
Hedged versus unhedged payoff table
Rebuild the table at S&P levels 900, 1,000 and 1,100 with the $125,000 futures gain or loss, and state that the result matches holding a quarter of the portfolio in cash.
Futures hedge versus selling the stocks
List the practical advantages the video gives: one trade instead of 500, lower transaction costs, one price to monitor, and cash interest already built into the futures price.
What hedging X% of an exposure means
State the rule that futures notional equals X% of the exposure's current value, and apply it to hedging half of a firm's foreign-currency revenue.