UBS Warrants

With UBS Warrants, investors who are willing to take risks can choose between call and Put Warrants. Call Warrants benefit from rising prices of the underlying asset whereas Put Warrants rely on falling prices of the underlying asset, as a Call Warrant guarantees the right to buy a specific underlying asset (e.g. equities, indices, currency pairs, interest rates, commodities) at a fixed strike price. A Put Warrant, on the other hand, contains the right to sell a specific underlying asset at a fixed strike price. An American-style option lets you buy or sell the underlying at any time; a European-style option on the other hand can only be exercised on the expiration date.

Warrants are securitized options and have a leveraging effect. Investors thus participate in the underlying asset's performance, but only use the option price. And the price is only a fraction of the cost of the underlying asset. Leverage can, however, work in the opposite direction. If investors misjudge the market, they can lose all of their initial outlay.

Option prices depend on several variables, namely the residual term, the price of the underlying asset and its implied volatility, the interest rates and any dividends of the underlying asset. All these factors are used to calculate the option price and can affect it positively or negatively. Option prices can respond violently to small changes in a factor. In addition, investors must take into consideration the issuer risk, since losses of the invested capital could occur if UBS AG becomes insolvent, regardless of the performance of the underlying asset and other market parameters.

You can find a more detailed product description in our brochure "Knowledge in a nutshell".