Assignment margin

This one is not written up yet

The definition above is the short version. A full explanation — how it works, a worked example and the exam traps — is still being written. In the meantime the chapter below covers it in context.

Written up from the same chapter

• Call optionA contract giving its buyer the right, but never the obligation, to buy the underlying at a fixed strike price — so the loss is capped at the premium and the gain is not.
• Clearing corporationThe entity that steps between every buyer and seller in the derivatives segment by novation, becoming the counterparty to both sides and guaranteeing that the trade settles.
• Daily Settlement PriceThe price at which every open futures position is marked and reset at the end of each day — the last 30 minutes' volume weighted average price of that contract, computed separately for each expiry.
• DerivativeA contract whose value is derived from the value of something else — the underlying — rather than from anything the contract itself owns or produces.
• Final Settlement PriceThe price at which a commodity derivative is finally settled at expiry — a simple average of the polled spot prices of the expiry day and the two days before it.
• Initial marginThe deposit both the buyer and the seller of a futures contract must place before the position is accepted, sized to cover a 99% worst-case one-day loss on that position.