Answer:
sell 1.714
Explanation:
The computation of the number of contract buy or sold to hedge the position is shown below:
As we know that
Number of contracts = Hedge Ratio  Â
Hedge Ratio = Change in Portfolio Value ÷ Profit on one future contract
where,
Change in the value of the portfolio is
For that we need to do following calculations
Expected Drop in Index is
= (1200 - 1400) ÷ 1400  Â
= -14.29% Â Â
And, Expected Loss on the portfolio is
= Beta × Expected index drop
= 0.60 × (-14.29%)  Â
= -8.57% Â Â
So, the change is
= 1000000 × (-8.57%)
= -$85,700 Â
And, the profit is
= 200 × 250 multiplier
= 50,000
So, the hedging position is
= -$85,700 ÷ 50,000   Â
= -1.714 Â
This reflects the selling position