D & R A XXXXXXXXXX Question 10. Minimum Variance Commodity Hedge Choc Full of Good Inc., a producer of powdered hot chocolate, has just received a large order that will require the purchase of 800...

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Question 10. Minimum Variance Commodity Hedge

Choc Full of Good Inc., a producer of powdered hot chocolate, has just received a large order that will require the purchase of 800 metric tons of cocoa in 3 months. The current spot price of cocoa is US $3,055 per metric ton. The standard deviation of the change in spot cocoa price is 0.2. Mr. Dulce, the CFO of Choc Full, is considering a minimum-variance hedge of this future cocoa purchase using the three-month cocoa futures contract. The contract size is 10 metric tons. The standard deviation of the change in cocoa futures price is 0.25. The covariance between the change in the spot and futures cocoa price is 0.035. The annually compounded interest rate faced by the company is 5%, the three-month storage cost is $2.5 per metric ton, and the convenience yield is $0.5 per metric ton.

1. Compute the minimum-variance hedge ratio.