> if the price of Maya goes up in a year, he pockets the difference. No: he sold an option, so the buyer can opt to do nothing; he benefits by just the price o

> if the price of Maya goes up in a year, he pockets the difference. No: he sold an option, so the buyer can opt to do nothing; he benefits by just the price of the option. As time went on he bought options in other things, trying to approximate his risk in Maya crude as if it was a blend of those other things. Those options are commonly traded, so are much cheaper than the premium he charged for the Mayan option which was very specialised. > what restructuring He bought an equal and opposite option from the Mexican government for billions more than they paid for the first one. This gave the Mexicans a cash profit, and zeroed out his risk. Why was it profitable? Presumably the billions they gave the Mexicans were less than they'd actually made from the hedges, and much less than the option was really worth.