This research study encompasses in its scope an analysis of historical roots of derivative trading, types of derivative products, regulation and policy developments, trend and growth, future prospects and challenges of derivative market in India. The study is organized into three sections. Section I deals with the concept, definition, features and types of financial derivatives. Section II has been devoted to a discussion of the growth of derivatives market, and regulation and policy development. The last section specifies summary and concluding remarks.
For Section I, the journal discussed about the concept of derivatives itself. The term of derivatives actually refers to a broad class of financial instruments which mainly include options and futures. These instruments derive their value from the price and other related variables of the underlying asset. They do not have worth of their own and derive their value from the claim they give to their owners to own some other financial assets or security. A simple example of derivative is butter, which is derivative of milk. The price of butter depends upon price of milk, which in turn depends upon the demand and supply of milk. The asset underlying a derivative may be commodity or a financial asset. Derivatives are those financial instruments that derive their value from the other assets. For example, the price of gold to be delivered after two months will depend, among so many things, on the present and expected price of this commodity.
Furthermore, derivatives can be classified in to two categories which are commodity derivatives and financial derivatives. In case of commodity derivatives, underlying asset can be commodities like wheat, gold, silver etc whereas in case of financial derivatives underlying assets are stocks, currencies, bonds and other interest rates bearing securities etc. Since, the scope of this case study is limited to only