Derivative Instruments and Contract Structures
General derivative instrument, equity-linked, asset-swap, weather derivative, and contract-structure terms.
Financial-instrument terms for options, futures, forwards, swaps, credit derivatives, underlyings, and payoff structures.
Derivatives is the financial-instruments landing page for options, futures, forwards, swaps, credit derivatives, structured products, underlyings, hedging terms, payoff structures, and valuation inputs. It keeps related terms in one branch so readers can move from a broad instrument question to the article that owns the contract evidence.
Use this page when a contract derives value from an underlying asset, rate, index, credit event, volatility measure, or other reference. Use the parent Financial Instruments page when you need the broader instrument map. For an individual decision, confirm the contract, term sheet, prospectus, confirmation, exchange specification, or disclosure record before relying on the term.
Use the table below to choose the branch that matches the instrument type, payoff feature, settlement term, or risk exposure being reviewed.
| Branch | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Derivative Instruments and Contract Structures | General derivative instrument, equity-linked, asset-swap, weather derivative, and contract-structure terms. |
| Derivative Risk, Hedging, and Underlyings | Derivative notional, underlying asset, hedge-ratio, hedging transaction, and exposure-transfer terms. |
| Futures, Forwards, and Contracts | Futures, forwards, delivery, contango, futures options, index futures, financial futures, and forward-pricing terms. |
| Option Pricing, Greeks, and Volatility | Derivative pricing, option Greeks, volatility surface, time decay, and option-model terms. |
| Option Strategies, Spreads, and Writing | Option spread, collar, strangle, covered-position, naked-writing, hedging, and multi-leg strategy terms. |
| Options Contracts and Exercise Features | Option-contract terms for rights, exercise, expiration, moneyness, contract styles, warrants, and option-linked underlyings. |
| Structured Credit and Synthetic Products | CDO, CDX, loan credit-default swap, single-name CDS, and synthetic credit-product terms. |
| Swaps, Rates, and Credit Derivatives | Swap, interest-rate derivative, credit derivative, currency swap, total-return, variance, and inflation-swap terms. |
A futures contract can hedge a price exposure, while an option creates asymmetric exposure because the holder has a right rather than a delivery obligation.
Derivatives content is educational and does not provide personalized investment, tax, legal, accounting, valuation, derivatives, or securities advice.
Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.
General derivative instrument, equity-linked, asset-swap, weather derivative, and contract-structure terms.
Derivative notional, underlying asset, hedge-ratio, hedging transaction, and exposure-transfer terms.
Futures, forwards, delivery, contango, futures options, index futures, financial futures, and forward-pricing terms.
Derivative pricing, option Greeks, volatility surface, time decay, and option-model terms.
Option spread, collar, strangle, covered-position, naked-writing, hedging, and multi-leg strategy terms.
Option-contract terms for rights, exercise, expiration, moneyness, contract styles, warrants, and option-linked underlyings.
CDO, CDX, loan credit-default swap, single-name CDS, and synthetic credit-product terms.
Swap, interest-rate derivative, credit derivative, currency swap, total-return, variance, and inflation-swap terms.