Derivative markets create beneficial opportunities that do not exist in their absence. Derivatives can be used to create strategies that cannot be implemented with the underlyings alone. For example, derivatives make it easier to go short, thereby benefiting from a decline in the value of the underlying. In addition, derivatives, in and of themselves, are characterized by a relatively high degree of leverage, meaning that participants in derivatives transactions usually have to invest only a small amount of their own capital relative to the value of the underlying. As such, small movements in the underlying can lead to fairly large movements in the amount of money made or lost on the derivative. Derivatives generally trade at lower transaction costs than comparable spot market transactions, are often more liquid than their underlyings, and offer a simple, effective, and low-cost way to transfer risk. For example, a shareholder of a company can reduce or even completely eliminate the market exposure by trading a derivative on the equity. Holders of fixed-income securities can use derivatives to reduce or completely eliminate interest rate risk, allowing them to focus on the credit risk. Alternatively, holders of fixed-income securities can reduce or eliminate the credit risk, focusing more on the interest rate risk. Derivatives permit such adjustments easily and quickly.