WALL OPTION
See
corridor option
WARRANT
(1) A certificate giving the purchaser the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a specified amount of an asset at a certain price over a specified period of time. Warrants differ from options only in that they are usually listed. Underlying assets include equity, debt, currencies and commodities.
(2) The document of title to metal stored in a London Metal Exchange-registered warehouse. The warrant is a bearer instrument and states the brand of metal, its weight, the number of pieces and the rent payable. Warrants tend to be stored and transferred electronically in the LME electronic system known as “SWORD.”
See also
equity warrant
WARRANT-DRIVEN SWAP
A swap with a warrant allowing an issuer of a bond the extension of a swap in the event that he exercises a similar warrant on the bond.
See also
extendible swap
WEATHER DERIVATIVE
Typically swaps and vanilla options such as calls, puts, caps, floors and collars with payoffs linked to temperature, precipitation, humidity or wind speed. Most instruments are linked to heating degree days or cooling degree days. These two indexes measure the deviation of the average of a day’s high and low temperature from a baseline reference temperature.
WEEKLY RESET FORWARD
A weekly reset forward is a synthetic forward where a portion of the contract is locked in each week, provided that the spot rate that week meets a predetermined fixing criterion. Hence the purchaser can deal at a rate better than the forward outright, but only in an amount corresponding to the frequency with which the criterion has been met. If the criterion is met in none of the weeks during the life of the contract, then the contract is not activated at all; if it is met every week, the overall rate is favorable compared to the initial prevailing market rate. The weekly reset forward is used for those with cash-flows spread over time or to hedge balance sheets.
See also
forward extra,
wall option
WORSE-OF-TWO-ASSETS OPTION
See
outperformance option