Producing Recurring Income in Gold

10 апр. 2023 г.

Gold has long been a darling of investors. Its holders - whether households or central banks - seek refuge in the yellow metal in times of crisis. Gold is a resilient store of wealth, offers durable portfolio diversification, exhibits lower volatility relative to equities & bonds, and serves as an inflation hedge.

But it has a big downside. As mentioned in our previous paper, gold pays zero yield. Shares pay-out dividends. Debt earns interest. Property delivers rents. But gold? Zero!

There are multiple methods of generating yield from gold. This paper illustrates a risk-limited, easy to execute, and capital-efficient means of producing yield by investing in gold.

Innovation in financial markets enables even non-yielding assets such as gold to produce regular income. A class of derivatives known as call options can be cleverly deployed to generate yield.

Call options are derivative contracts that allow its buyers to profit from rising prices of the underlying asset. When prices rise, call option holders earn outsized gains relative to the options price ("call premiums"). Unlimited upside with limited downside describes the call option holder's strategy in summary.

What has that got to do with generating yield in gold? Everything. For every buyer, the market requires a seller. Options sellers collect call premiums which comprise the income.

Many widely believe that options are weapons of mass wealth destruction. Not entirely wrong. Used poorly, options devastate investors' portfolios. Deployed wisely, options help astute traders to better manage their portfolio, generate superior yield on their assets, and construct convexity (disproportionate gain for fixed amount of pain) into their investing strategies. Fortunately, a covered call is a strategy which uses options prudently. As the strategy involves holding the asset whose prices are expected to rally, the risk of the strategy is hedged with risks well contained.

Gold Covered Call involves two trades. A long position in gold and a short position in out-of-the-money gold calls. In bullish markets, investors gain from call premiums plus also benefit from increase in prices. Covered calls not only enable investors to generate income but also reduce downside risk if asset prices tank.

A covered call trade in gold can be implemented in a margin efficient manner using CME’s Gold Futures and Options.

A long position in CME’s Gold futures (“Gold Futures”) gives exposure to 100 troy ounces (oz) of gold per lot. Combining long futures with a short call option on Gold Futures at out-of-the-money strike allows investors to harvest premiums.

Selecting an optimal strike and an expiry date is critical to successfully execute covered call strategies. First, Strike. It is the price level at which the call option transforms to be in-the-money. Strikes which have daily volumes & meaningful open interest enable options to be traded with ease and provide narrow spreads. Strikes that make options expire worthless benefits the covered call options holder.

Second, Expiry. Options have expiry. Options sellers thrive on shrinking expiry for generating yields. Investors selling call options optimise their risk-return profile by selecting an expiry with higher implied volatility (IV). Option prices are directly proportional to IV. Higher IV leads to larger premiums enriching returns.


SIMULATION AND PAY-OFF MATRIX

This paper illustrates a covered call strategy in gold using the CME Gold derivatives market:
1. Long one lot of Gold Futures expiring in Oct (GCV3) at $ 2,050/oz.
2. Sell one lot of Call Options on Gold Futures expiring in Oct at a strike of $ 2,275 collecting a premium of $ 40/oz.

The pay-off matrix simulates the trade P&L under four likely outcomes among many possibilities at trade expiry:


a. Gold rises past the strike ($ 2,400): Options get assigned to the buyer. Covered call option holder incurs loss of $ 85/oz (=$ 2,400 - $ 2,275 - $ 40) from short call offset by profits from long futures ($ 350 - $ 85) = $ 265/oz. Each GC contract has 100 troy ounces of gold, so total profit will be $ 265 x 100 = $ 26,500.

b. Gold rises but remains below the strike ($ 2,250): Options expire worthless to the buyer. Seller retains premium in full. Covered call option holder profits from long futures + call options premium ($ 200 + $ 40) = $ 240/oz. Each GC contract has 100 troy ounces of gold, so total profit will be $ 240 x 100 = $ 24,000.

c. Gold price falls marginally below the entry price ($ 2,030): Options expire worthless to the buyer. Covered call option holder loses money from long futures and thankfully the loss is offset by call options premium (-$ 20 + $ 40) = $ 20/oz. Each GC contract has 100 troy ounces of gold, so total profit will be $ 20 x 100 = $ 2,000.

d. Gold price falls ~5% below the entry price ($ 1,950): Options expire worthless to the buyer. Covered call option holder loses money from long futures and the loss is partially offset by call options premium (-$ 100 + $ 40) = -$ 60/oz . Each GC contract has 100 troy ounces of gold, so total loss will be -$ 60 x 100 = -$ 6,000.



The chart below describes the pay-off from Gold Futures (Long position), Gold Call Options (short position) and Covered Call (combination of the two trade legs).




MARKET DATA
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