Types of Foreign Currency Hedging Vehicles

The following are some of the most common types of foreign currency hedging vehicles used in today's markets as a foreign currency hedge. While retail forex traders typically use foreign currency options as a hedging vehicle. Banks and commercials are more likely to use options, swaps, swaptions and other more complex derivatives to meet their specific hedging needs.

Spot Contracts - A foreign currency contract to buy or sell at the current foreign currency rate, requiring settlement within two days.

As a foreign currency hedging vehicle, due to the short-term settlement date, spot contracts are not appropriate for many foreign currency hedging and trading strategies. Foreign currency spot contracts are more commonly used in combination with other types of foreign currency hedging vehicles when implementing a foreign currency hedging strategy.

For retail investors, in particular, the spot contract and its associated risk are often the underlying reason that a foreign currency hedge must be placed. The spot contract is more often a part of the reason to hedge foreign currency risk exposure rather than the foreign currency hedging solution.

Forward Contracts - A foreign currency contract to buy or sell a foreign currency at a fixed rate for delivery on a specified future date or period.

Foreign currency forward contracts are used as a foreign currency hedge when an investor has an obligation to either make or take a foreign currency payment at some point in the future. If the date of the foreign currency payment and the last trading date of the foreign currency forwards contract are matched up, the investor has in effect "locked in" the exchange rate payment amount.

* Important: Please note that forwards contracts are different than futures contracts. Foreign currency futures contracts have standard contract sizes, time periods, settlement procedures and are traded on regulated exchanges throughout the world. Foreign currency forwards contracts may have different contract sizes, time periods and settlement procedures than futures contracts. Foreign currency forwards contracts are considered over-the-counter (OTC) due to the fact that there is no centralized trading location and transactions are conducted directly between parties via telephone and online trading platforms at thousands of locations worldwide.

Foreign Currency Options - A financial foreign currency contract giving the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a specific foreign currency contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the foreign currency option buyer pays to the foreign currency option seller for the foreign currency option contract rights is called the option "premium."

A foreign currency option can be used as a foreign currency hedge for an open position in the foreign currency spot market. Foreign currency options can also be used in combination with other foreign currency spot and options contracts to create more complex foreign currency hedging strategies. There are many different foreign currency option strategies available to both commercial and retail investors.

Interest Rate Options - A financial interest rate contract giving the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a specific interest rate contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the interest rate option buyer pays to the interest rate option seller for the foreign currency option contract rights is called the option "premium." Interest rate option contracts are more often used by interest rate speculators, commercials and banks rather than by retail forex traders as a foreign currency hedging vehicle.

Foreign Currency Swaps - A financial foreign currency contract whereby the buyer and seller exchange equal initial principal amounts of two different currencies at the spot rate. The buyer and seller exchange fixed or floating rate interest payments in their respective swapped currencies over the term of the contract. At maturity, the principal amount is effectively re-swapped at a predetermined exchange rate so that the parties end up with their original currencies. Foreign currency swaps are more often used by commercials as a foreign currency hedging vehicle rather than by retail forex traders.

Interest Rate Swaps - A financial interest rate contracts whereby the buyer and seller swap interest rate exposure over the term of the contract. The most common swap contract is the fixed-to-float swap whereby the swap buyer receives a floating rate from the swap seller, and the swap seller receives a fixed rate from the swap buyer. Other types of swap include fixed-to-fixed and float-to-float. Interest rate swaps are more often utilized by commercials to re-allocate interest rate risk exposure.

Why Hedge Foreign Currency Risk?

International commerce has rapidly increased as the internet has provided a new and more transparent marketplace for individuals and entities alike to conduct international business and trading activities. Significant changes in the international economic and political landscape have led to uncertainty regarding the direction of foreign exchange rates. This uncertainty leads to volatility and the need for an effective vehicle to hedge foreign exchange rate risk and/or interest rate changes while, at the same time, effectively ensuring a future financial position.

Each entity and/or individual that has exposure to foreign exchange rate risk will have specific foreign exchange hedging needs and this website can not possibly cover every existing foreign exchange hedging situation. Therefore, we will cover the more common reasons that a foreign exchange hedge is placed and show you how to properly hedge foreign exchange rate risk.

Foreign Exchange Rate Risk Exposure - Foreign exchange rate risk exposure is common to virtually all who conduct international business and/or trading. Buying and/or selling of goods or services denominated in foreign currencies can immediately expose you to foreign exchange rate risk. If a firm price is quoted ahead of time for a contract using a foreign exchange rate that is deemed appropriate at the time the quote is given, the foreign exchange rate quote may not necessarily be appropriate at the time of the actual agreement or performance of the contract. Placing a foreign exchange hedge can help to manage this foreign exchange rate risk.

Interest Rate Risk Exposure - Interest rate exposure refers to the interest rate differential between the two countries' currencies in a foreign exchange contract. The interest rate differential is also roughly equal to the "carry" cost paid to hedge a forward or futures contract. As a side note, arbitragers are investors that take advantage when interest rate differentials between the foreign exchange spot rate and either the forward or futures contract are either to high or too low. In simplest terms, an arbitrager may sell when the carry cost he or she can collect is at a premium to the actual carry cost of the contract sold. Conversely, an arbitrager may buy when the carry cost he or she may pay is less than the actual carry cost of the contract bought. Either way, the arbitrager is looking to profit from a small price discrepancy due to interest rate differentials.

Foreign Investment / Stock Exposure - Foreign investing is considered by many investors as a way to either diversify an investment portfolio or seek a larger return on investment(s) in an economy believed to be growing at a faster pace than investment(s) in the respective domestic economy. Investing in foreign stocks automatically exposes the investor to foreign exchange rate risk and speculative risk. For example, an investor buys a particular amount of foreign currency (in exchange for domestic currency) in order to purchase shares of a foreign stock. The investor is now automatically exposed to two separate risks. First, the stock price may go either up or down and the investor is exposed to the speculative stock price risk. Second, the investor is exposed to foreign exchange rate risk because the foreign exchange rate may either appreciate or depreciate from the time the investor first purchased the foreign stock and the time the investor decides to exit the position and repatriates the currency (exchanges the foreign currency back to domestic currency). Therefore, even if a speculative profit is achieved because the foreign stock price rose, the investor could actually net lose money if devaluation of the foreign currency occurred while the investor was holding the foreign stock (and the devaluation amount was greater than the speculative profit). Placing a foreign exchange hedge can help to manage this foreign exchange rate risk.

Hedging Speculative Positions - Foreign currency traders utilize foreign exchange hedging to protect open positions against adverse moves in foreign exchange rates, and placing a foreign exchange hedge can help to manage foreign exchange rate risk. Speculative positions can be hedged via a number of foreign exchange hedging vehicles that can be used either alone or in combination to create entirely new foreign exchange hedging strategies.

Forex Trading Strategy - Make Money with Currency Trading

Forex trading has become one of the most profitable arenas for both experienced and beginner investors to enter for a long time. The main attractions of entering the forex market is that it is 24 hour trading, you don't need a huge amount of liquid cash to enter the market and no one cash rich investor can really effect the market at all. The following questions are the dominant ones that most people want answered:

Why do you need a forex trading strategy?

What is the best forex trading strategy?

How do you make money with currency trading?

If you want to become a successful forex trader you really do need a trading strategy. Without one there is every possibility that you will not be informed enough to make the right decisions at the right time. The result can be considerable loss.

What is the best forex trading strategy? Although like in any system there are several variations, with forex there are two main strategies that most investors use plus a third which is a combination of the first two.The two forex trading strategies are Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis.

Technical Analysis is mostly favoured by the small and medium sized investors. It is basically an assumption that all the relevant information about a currency has already been analysed and documented and found in the price chain. What this means is that all the factors that influence the price are factored into the price of the currency. A trader using this method will look at the highest and lowest prices that a currency goes to, the opening and closing prices and the volume of transactions that have taken place. An investor using technical analysis will not normally look at the longer term trends of the currency but look at the most recent past, accepting that small fluctuations will go on as before.

Fundamental Analysis relies on a lot of research on the underlying strength of a country's economy, it's government, rumours. Also factors like the unemployment level, Central Bank interest rates and the tax policy of the country. Of course there are several others tthat would be country specific. One important point to note is that even though these factors are considered the most important it would be wise to recognise that a currency's value is also based on the perceptions and expectations of the stock market.

How do you make money with currency trading? In the most simplest terms it is simply trading a currency when you stand to gain immediately from the currency price or on the premise that the currency price will change in your favour at which point you will sell it. No rocket science in that! But the systems in place to determine that optimum buy and sell points are extremely sophisticated taking into account many variables. By using these systems traders are able to make several trades within even minutes, each time creaming off the profit from the trade. A very popular means of making money from currency trading is to employ 'Marginal Trading'. This term simply means that you are trading with borrowed capital. In this you usually only need 0.5% of the total amount you are trading. Say for example you had $1000 capital, then you could make trades of $200,000. As you can imagine even a margin of only a few points can result in a great profit. Plus the turn around can be extremely fast.

Perhaps this gives you an overview of why you need a forex trading strategy and the basic concepts of how to make money with forex.

Forex Trading Strategies in Forex Market

In order to succeed in forex market, one can follow certain strategies like technical analysis, fundamental and economic analysis, combination of these two, different currency pair relationships etc.

Other more advanced techniques are SAR, CCI, Stochastics, MACD, Liner Regression, Bollinger Bands etc.

One should not be scared of the terminology involved. One should follow a strategy which one can understand and follow well.

The two most important strategies of technical and fundamental analysis are also used in stock markets. It may be advisable to use both of them while some people may use either one.

Fundamental analysis covers economic and financial factors like GDP, inflation, employment figures, devaluation, trade statistics, capital movements etc. In technical analysis one takes help of charts, graphs, bars, trends etc.

Whatever the strategy one adopts, one should learn to be a disciplined trader. For this, one should consider the following:

• Always use stop losses of some kind

• Don’t use all of your balances, but keep some separately available for special situations.

• Start with small lot sizes

• Always have a win / loss limit

• Adjust margin according to market conditions

• Always get new training and education

Some people also use intra day strategy. With this, one can use multiple time frames for analysis like one minute, 15 minutes. 30 minutes and 60 minutes frames.

One noteworthy element of forex trading is risk management. This consists of stop losses and trailing stops. One needs to learn how to establish stops, fix initial stops and experiment with trading plans at the margin. One has also to learn trailing, breakeven and time stops.

Risk management seems to have become easier with more flexibility in forex trading rules. There is full transparency now in this, better ability to put bids and offers within narrow spreads and less cost per ticket. Some forex trading platforms automatically close all positions if an account declines 60%. This provides some added safety.

FX trading like commodity trading is always conducted on “margin”. The general ratio is 50:1 and can go up to 100:1 in some cases. This means that against every margin of $1000, one can hold a position of up to $50,000. In currency trading what one can lose at the most is just the amount of margin while as the potential for profits is substantial.