Volume 3, No. 1, April 2004

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A Note on Dual Hedging
Donald Lien
Department of Economics, University of Texas—San Antonio, U.S.A.
Abstract
Under current Internal Revenue Services guidelines, gains from futures contracts serving price (quantity) risk management purposes are treated as ordinary (capital) income. This paper finds that, although dual hedging opportunities are available, the asymmetric tax treatment prevents firms from trading “quantity” futures contracts.
Key words: dual hedging; ordinary income; capital income
JEL classification: G11

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