Not exact matches
As a result, they
spread out risk much more effectively than a small, hand - picked
basket of stocks or bond issues.
When the price
of the futures and that
of the
basket of underlying
stocks converged, as they do later when the futures contracts settle, the arbitrageur closes out the hedge and captures the original
spread as a profit.
Because many
stocks are purchased and not just one, the risk is
spread across a
basket of stocks.