Abstract: Described herein are methods and systems for providing a new type of financial instrument which offers a well-defined return after a set, very short time period. The instrument is in the form of a derivative or option and its return is based on the change in value of one or more investment vehicles such as a stock or bond index. In particular, an embodiment of the derivative instrument is one which returns either nothing or an amount determined by sums invested in the derivative instrument and one or more complementary derivative instruments, the complementary derivative instrument(s) being based on differing outcomes in value changes than the derivative instrument.