BASIS RISK
basis risk: translation
The risk to a holder of financial instruments that a change in prevailing interest rates will not affect the prices of or yields on similar instruments in exactly equal amounts. For example, an increase in prevailing interest rates might raise 3-month U.S. Treasury yields by 100 basis points while 3-month certificate of deposit yields go up by only 85 basis points. One of the four primary components of interest rate risk.
Sometimes called spread risk. American Banker Glossary
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Unexpected changes in the basis between the placing and the lifting of a hedge.Basis risk is in excess of convergence. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary
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The basis for a particular product does not necessarily stay constant - changes in basis can occur for a variety of reasons. Such changes can cause either a profit or loss to be incurred by the holder of the product and thus constitute a risk. Basis risk can mean that a person using futures to hedge an underlying cash position cannot obtain a perfect hedge, where profits on one side of the hedge exactly offset losses on the other. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein financial glossary
See also basis and basis trading. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein financial glossary
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The risk that the price of a future will vary from the price of the underlying cash instrument as expiry approaches.
► See also Convergence.