What is a Warrant in Finance? Financial Derivatives - Stock Warrants

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Today we learn about what a warrant is in finance and what a warrant is in debt.

In finance, a warrant is a security that gives the owner the right but not the obligation to buy the underlying stock of the issuing company at a fixed price called exercise price until the expiry date.

Warrants and options are similar in that the two contractual financial instruments allow the holder special rights to buy securities. Both are discretionary and have expiration dates. The word warrant simply means to "endow with the right", which is only slightly different from the meaning of option.

Warrants are sometimes attached to bonds or preferred stock as a sweetener, allowing the issuer to pay lower interest rates or dividends. They can be used to enhance the yield of the bond and make them more attractive to potential buyers. Warrants can also be used in private equity deals. Frequently, these warrants are detachable and can be sold independently of the bond or stock.
In the case of warrants issued with preferred stocks, stockholders may need to detach and sell the warrant before they can receive dividend payments. Thus, it is sometimes beneficial to detach and sell a warrant as soon as possible so the investor can earn dividends.

Warrants are actively traded in some financial markets such as German Stock Exchange (Deutsche Börse) and Hong Kong.

Warrants are very similar to call options. For instance, many warrants confer the same rights as equity options and warrants often can be traded in secondary markets like options. However, there also are several key differences between warrants and equity options:

Warrants are issued by private parties, typically the corporation on which a warrant is based, rather than a public options exchange.
Warrants issued by the company itself are dilutive. When the warrant issued by the company is exercised, the company issues new shares of stock, so the number of outstanding shares increases. When a call option is exercised, the owner of the call option receives an existing share from an assigned call writer (except in the case of employee stock options, where new shares are created and issued by the company upon exercise). Unlike common stock shares outstanding, warrants do not have voting rights.

Warrants are considered over the counter instruments and thus are usually only traded by financial institutions with the capacity to settle and clear these types of transactions.
A warrant's lifetime is measured in years (as long as 15 years), while options are typically measured in months. Even LEAPS (long-term equity anticipation securities), the longest stock options available, tend to expire in two or three years. Upon expiration, the warrants are worthless unless the price of the common stock is greater than the exercise price.
Warrants are not standardized like exchange-listed options. While investors can write stock options on the ASX (or CBOE), they are not permitted to do so with ASX-listed warrants, since only companies can issue warrants and, while each option contract is over 1000 underlying ordinary shares (100 on CBOE), the number of warrants that must be exercised by the holder to buy the underlying asset depends on the conversion ratio set out in the offer documentation for the warrant issue.
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I finally started reading "Derivatives for the trading floor" ( bought like months ago ) ... i like the format very much, no spaghetti whatsoever, and the quizzes at the end of the chapters are meaningful ( I always "answer" with a quote from some of Patrick's videos :P )

poohshmoo
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Thanks for all of the time you've put into your videos they helped me understand the complexity of the market

WiCapitalco
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You are brilliant and the video is very helpful. You explained everything in a very understanding way and we support you in doing more videos like this. Thank you!

tomaso
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thank you, I was able to show, thanks to you that a cheque can be used as a warrant in bills of exchange at canada, you never said these words but the video does confirm the use of "warrant" thank you have a great day.

alphataurus
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How the warrants discussed in this video relate to warrants received as a bonus as an employee. i..e. our company allows us to chose a warrants as a bonus payout. Then we have 10 years to sell it, they have a face value of say 10 EUR a unit. The price can go above or below that - clearly that's the risk we take. At the time when we sell it, we get cash for it, not shares. thanks for some feedback of a separate video on it.

zabciuszek
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how a company management has the right to issue warrants and dilutes the value of the existing shares without the shareholders voting on such move?

qwaszxerdfcvtyghvb
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What happens to warrants from a public company if they are bought and go private? I am speaking about Berkshire Gray.

FinalFlash
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Are most of the stock that is received upon warrant exercises, sold on the day of exercise?

jaolagues
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so that means warrants are less leveraged than a LEAPS right? how are they priced compared to LEAPS?

andrewdornan
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Excellent video! Was wondering if someone could help me understand a history question related to warrants.
Was reading during the 1500s a customs official, Thomas Smythe, fell out of favor with Queen 👸 Elizabeth of England 🇬🇧 incurring the Queens extreme displeasure with Mr. Smythe. Apparently Mr. Smythe sold some privy warrants which ended up having the treasury losing 6, 000 pounds. Queen Elizabeth sent some aids to "talk to" Mr. Smythe but he was unable to recoup the financial losses. Elizabeth wanted Smythe jailed, but Smythe's friend, Sir Robert Cecil intervened on Smythe's behalf.
My question is:
Can anyone explain plainly what
Privy Warrants are?

TonyqTNT
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I have a question and had been trying to find the right answer. When they do a secondary offering and at the same time they issue stock warrants to be exercised at the price..do they dilute/issue more shares again when warrants are exercised?

thekidinventers
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How do we account for bonus warrants received?

chaccopo
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Amazing. So what I’ve been referring to as “listed options” for the past couple of years are actually called warrants..

Gumbii
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So you discussed call warrants, but I recently came across put warrants. If comapnies deal with call warrants by issuing extra shares, how does a company deal with a put warrant?

DaveM-jsmw
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Do preferred shares also dilute common stock?

rossfriedman
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What is the purpose of a warrant having a conversion ratio?

qudizzle
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So warrents=free money for corporations

ProfAzimov