hedger investment & finance definition

A trader or commodity producer who places a trade in order to protect against price fluctuations in commodities or financial instruments. A hedger may be someone who owns Treasury bonds and is concerned that prices might decline, for example. He doesn’t want to sell the actual bonds, but instead sells Treasury bond futures contracts to hedge his position. If the price of bonds does fall, his profit on the futures contract transaction will cover, or hedge, the loss.