Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/s9/1/2/solution

Let be the terminal asset price and a common strike or forward delivery price. A long European call and put have expiry payoffs
The call is zero below and then rises with slope one; the put falls with slope minus one below and is zero above it. A long forward instead has and a short forward has . Both are straight lines crossing zero at , with negative as well as positive outcomes.
The option's exercise right truncates the unfavourable side, whereas the forward is an obligation. These are payoffs, not total profits: an option premium and its financing cost have not been subtracted. A newly agreed fair forward may have zero initial value while still having a nonzero future delivery price.
Figure 1.
Original European call and put payoffs compared with long and short forward-contract payoffs
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