Fuel Hedging and Risk Management

Preface xiii Acknowledgments xix About the Authors xxi CHAPTER 1 Energy Commodities and Price Formation 1 Energy as a Strategic Resource 1 Energy as a Tradable Commodity 3 Energy Commodities 5 Crude Oil 5 Oil Products 8 Natural Gas 11 Coal 11 Price Drivers in Energy Markets 12 Geopolitical Risks 12 The Geopolitical Chessboard – The Petrodollar System and Rising China 12 Long-Term Supply and Demand 15 Short-Term Supply and Demand: Supply Chain and Infrastructure 17 Financialization of Commodities 19 Market-Specific Price Drivers 19 Summary 20 CHAPTER 2 Major Energy Consumers and the Rationale for Fuel Hedging 23 Energy Market Participants 23 Risks Faced by Fuel Consumers – The Case of the Airline Industry 27 Airline Industry – Metrics and Operational Risks 27 Airline Industry – Financial Risks 30 Risks Faced by Other Major Fuel Consumers 35 Shipping Companies 35 Land Transportation 37 Oil Refining, Petrochemicals, and Power Generation 37 Industrial Users of Energy Commodities 38 The Case for Hedging 39 The Effect of Hedging on Airline Stock Price Volatility 39 Commodity Derivative Markets 41 A Brief History of Commodity Markets 42 Commodity Spot Markets and the Need for Standardization 43 Forward Contracts 44 Futures Contracts 45 Option Contracts 50 Summary 53 Appendix A 54 CHAPTER 3 Developing Fuel Hedging Strategies 55 The Rationale for Commodity Hedging 55 Developing a Fuel Hedging Program 57 Risk Identification and Assessment 57 Types of Risk 58 Risk Identification 59 Forecasting Prices and Conducting Simulations 59 Articulating the Firm’s Risk Appetite 60 Setting Objectives for Fuel Hedging and the Scope of Hedging 60 Identifying Risk Managers within the Organization 61 Determining the Scope of the Hedge Program 61 Implementation of Hedging 62 Selecting the Fuel Cost Management Method 62 Identifying the Underlying to Hedge with and Basis Risk 63 Quantity and Tenor of Hedging 66 Selection of Instruments for Hedging 67 Market Risk 68 Management of the Unwanted Risks of a Portfolio 68 Credit Risk 68 Liquidity Risk 69 Operational Risk 69 Legal and Reputational Risk 70 Monitoring and Calibration of the Hedging Program 70 Template for a Risk Management Policy 71 The Airline Industry – Trends in Fuel Risk Management 71 Magnitude of Fuel Price Risk 71 Underlyings and Hedging Instruments 73 Quantity and Tenor of Hedging 74 Recent Developments 75 Summary 75 CHAPTER 4 Shipping and Airlines – Basics of Fuel Hedging 77 Spot–Forward Relationships 77 Theories on the Shape of Forward Curves 78 Spot–Forward Relationships for Investment Assets 79 Spot–Forward Relationships for Commodities 80 Spot and Futures Volatility 81 Options 82 Call and Put Options 83 Put–Call Parity 84 Option-Based Hedging for a Shipping Company 85 Implied Volatility and the Black–Scholes Model 86 The Black–Scholes–Merton Model 88 Black’s Model for Pricing Options on Futures Contracts 89 The Greeks 89 Delta 90 Gamma 92 Theta 92 Vega 94 Rho 94 Higher-Order Greeks 95 Black’s Model Option Greeks 95 Asian Swaps and Options 96 Asian Swap-Based Hedging for a Shipping Company 97 Option Structures 97 Call Spreads and Put Spreads 97 Collars, Three-Ways, and Calendar Spread Options 99 Straddles, Strangles, and Butterflies 100 Capped Forwards 102 Capped Swap Usage for a Shipping Company 103 Derivatives Pricing 104 Stochastic Processes for Asset Prices – An Introduction 104 Brownian Motion and Wiener Processes 104 Itô’s Lemma 106 Option Pricing Using the Black–Scholes–Merton Formula 107 Asian Option Pricing 109 Summary 112 CHAPTER 5 Advanced Hedging and Forward Curve Dynamics 113 Swap and Vanilla Option-Based Structures 113 Zero-Cost Structures and the Usage of Options 114 Leveraged Swaps 114 Capped Swaps 116 Floored Swaps 117 The Volatility Surface 118 Multi-option Structures 119 Zero-Cost Collar 120 Three-Ways 120 Risk Reversals and their Hedging 121 Early-Expiry Options and Instantaneous Volatility Term Structures 122 The Samuelson Effect and the Storage Theory 122 Implied Volatility of Energy Futures Contracts 123 Early-Expiry Profile Construction 124 Commodity Swaptions and Extendible Swaps 127 Usage of Commodity Swaptions and the Reasons for their Popularity 127 Swaption vs. a Basket of Options 128 Understanding Commodity Futures Term Structures 133 The Normal Backwardation or Keynesian Theory 133 The Theory of Storage 134 Term-Structure Models 135 Schwartz’s One-Factor Model 135 Schwartz’s Two-Factor Model 136 Gabillon’s Model 137 Gabillon’s Stochastic Equation for Futures 138 Early-Expiry Profile Using Gabillon’s Model 139 Importance of Early-Expiry Profile for Exotic Products 139 Summary 140 CHAPTER 6 Exotic Hedging and Volatility Dynamics 141 Extendible Option Structures 142 Extendible Collar 142 Extendible Three-Ways 143 Cancellable – Extendible Parity 144 Pricing Extendible Option Structures 146 Volatility Models 150 Stochastic Volatility Models 150 Barrier Option-Based Structures 152 Knock-Out Options and Knock-In Options 152 Relationship between KI and KO Options 154 Knock-Out Swaps 154 Airbag Structure 154 KIKOs and Combinations of KI and KO Options 155 Accumulator Structures 156 European or Asian-Style Barrier Options 157 Barrier Payouts and Non-linearity – Digital Options and Replication 157 The Reflection Principle 160 Barrier Options Under the Black–Scholes Framework 161 Put–Call Symmetry 163 MTM Analysis of Barrier Options Under the Black–Scholes Framework 163 Pricing and Risk Management of Barriers with Real-World Constraints 165 Barrier Options on a Nearby Futures Contract 167 Local Volatility Models 168 Bermudan Extendible Structures 170 Valuation of Bermudan Extendibles 174 Longstaff–Schwartz Method and Exercise Boundaries 174 Extendible vs. Auto-callable Transactions 177 Bermudan Extendibles and the Forward Skew 177 The Inverse Leverage Effect in Commodities Markets 179 Target Redemption Structures 180 Target Redemptions and the 2008 Debacle 182 Defining Leverage 183 Target Redemption Pricing and Risk Management 184 The Mean-Reversion Trap 185 Target Redemption and Trading Risks 186 Sticky Strike and Sticky Delta 187 Sticky Strike Approach 187 Sticky Delta or Sticky Moneyness 188 Gamma/Theta Ratio 188 Summary 190 CHAPTER 7 Fuel Hedging and Counterparty Risk 191 The Importance of Valuation and Transaction Monitoring 191 Market Risk Management 192 Fuel Hedgers: Lottery Tickets and Spring Cleaning 193 Value at Risk 194 Liquidity Risk 195 Counterparty Risk 195 Credit Risk and Counterparty Risk 196 Expected Exposure 198 Potential Future Exposure 198 Measurement of Counterparty Risk for a Portfolio of Trades 198 Peak PFE 198 Common PFE Misconceptions and Pitfalls 200 Credit Exposure Optimization Techniques 202 Bilateral Netting Agreements 202 Credit Support Annexes 203 CSA Negotiations – Key Considerations 203 Funding Valuation Adjustment 206 Fuel Hedgers and FVA 207 The FVA Debate 209 The Price of Counterparty Credit Risk 209 Credit Derivatives and Credit Default Swaps 210 Credit Valuation Adjustment 212 Common CVA Mis-steps 213 Gap Options and Collateralization Agreements 213 Debt Valuation Adjustment 214 Fuel Hedgers and Debt Valuation Adjustments 214 The Case for Bilateral CVA 215 Wrong-Way Risk 216 Counterparty Credit Risk Hedging 216 Contingent CDS 216 Capped Exposure Derivatives 217 Summary 217 CHAPTER 8 Conducting Scenario Analysis 219 Scenario Analysis for Vanilla Products 220 Scenario Analysis for Path-Dependent Products 224 MTM-Based Scenario Analysis and Potential Future Exposures 229 Beyond Payoffs and MTMs – Collateralization and Funding Requirement Analysis 230 Hedge Effectiveness 231 Summary 233 CHAPTER 9 Financing and Risk Management: Bundled Solutions 235 Structured Aviation Finance Overview 235 Airline Financing via Debt and Aircraft Leases 238 Term Loans 239 Export Credit Agency Debt 240 Leases 240 Rationale for Combining Hedging and Financing 243 Reduction of Default Risk through Hedging 244 Oil-Linked Financing Structures 245 Flexible Oil-Insulated Lease 246 Cancellable Hedged Loans as Interest Cheapeners 250 Summary 252 CHAPTER 10 Applied Fuel Hedging – Case Studies 253 Case Study 1: YM Cargo Inc. 253 Business Risks 253 Operational Mitigants 254 Risk Appetite 255 Hedge Program Objectives and Scope 255 Implementation of Hedging 256 Portfolio Monitoring 260 Case Study 2: Worldwide Airlines 260 Evolution of WWA’s Hedging Strategy 262 Hedging Transactions Executed by WWA 264 Hedge Portfolio Analysis 267 Credit Lines and Collateralization Issues 269 Restructuring WWA’s Portfolio 271 Counterparty Risk and Funding Considerations for BMC 272 Summary 276 Bibliography 277 Index 281