An equity manager holds a portfolio valued at $10m which has a beta of 1.

The number of futures contracts to sell are equal to $10m x 1.1/$50,000 = 220. Liquidating his portfolio would reduce the beta to zero, but would also get rid of the bets he wants to play on. Therefore Choice 'c' is the correct answer.

(Note that futures and spot prices generally move together allowing futures positions to be used for hedging the risk against movement in spot prices. However there is a basis risk between spot and futures, therefore the a perfect hedge is never possible with futures. If interest rates move a great deal, spot and futures prices may diverge. Of course, this risk is generally quite low but may become amplified with large leveraged portfolios. Just something to be aware of.)