Exchange Rate Mechanisms - Currency Hedging Essay example

The Balance of Payments in India mainly relies on services exports, remittances and the course capital flows, both foreign direct investments (FDI) and FII. It is very essential that all market participants, such as banks and other intermediaries be provided with the wherewithal so that they can undertake a risk management in a way that is scientific. One of the ways to access domestic, foreign exchange markets is to hedge on the underlying foreign exchange exposures. In addition, the facilities that are available as the booking of forward contracts were included in the domestic forex market in order to evolve and acquire volumes and depth (Sumanth, 2012). Some of the newer hedging instruments have put in place swaps and options in the

3. In light of the various other techniques for hedging currency exposures why the market for currency swap does exists? Who benefits and who looses in such an agreement? Can a swap really create value for a corporation? And if so where does the value come from? What risks does the swap carry for the various parties involved?

The presentation was scheduled for the first week of December 1990. Mr. Pross outlined the use of various derivatives, noting that they differed widely in their ability to reduce risk. If the company was, say, placing a large bid to buy a building abroad, one might prefer to use foreign currency options to hedge the currency risk in the event the deal fell through. He argued, however, that foreign currency futures were best suited to hedge the fluctuations in revenues arising from currency movements. Mr. Pross proposed a plan to hedge currency risk using futures which

AIFS wants to offset any change in the exchange rates that may adversely affect their profit margins by using currency forward contracts and currency options. These hedging activities work to offset the three types of risk defined above as bottom-line risk, volume risk, and competitive pricing risk. Since these hedging activities must be put in place two years before the actual year of sales, AIFS must decide the proportion and cost

The starting point of any foreign exchange risk management plan is to identify the exchange exposure faced. In controlling the foreign exchange risk, currency options have attained acceptance as very helpful tools due to their exclusive nature. They are very critical and convey a much wider range of hedging alternatives. Call options provide the right to the buyer to purchase the

The sale of receivables also depends on the purchasing willingness of counterparties. Aspen could find itself in a contracting finance cycle if the deferred payments are not paid on time and the finance institutions are willing to accept any further long term installment receivables. We also have to note that the company has further liabilities such as the 4 million dollar subordinated debenture to the Massachusetts Capital Resource Company. In the case of delayed payments of receivables, the purchasing unwillingness of finance institutions towards future sale of receivables and currents loans could trigger bankruptcy of Aspen. The long term deferment plan increases business but poses grave risk for the cash flow of the company. We also have to note that positive cash carries great significance as Aspen is now a publicly traded company, the cash flow could directly affect the stock price of the company and therefore influence the interest of investors towards Aspen. The company is also subjected to foreign exchange exposures due to the sales in foreign markets. The data shows us that 48 % of Aspen’s revenues come from United States, 31 % comes from Europe, 12 % from Asia and 9 % from other regions of the world. This subjects the company to have a hedge plan for British pounds, Yen, Yuan, Mark. We have to distinguish the fact that the company has hedging for receivables however this does not apply to expenses. We can come to the conclusion that the

In theory, it has been proved that futures and swaps can be equal to the combination of forwards. (Hull J C, 1997)Generally, a foreign exchange settlement contract will be signed by banks and their customers, which stipulates the type of foreign currency to be used, the sum, the exchange rates and duration. On the due date when income or expenditure of foreign exchange occurs, currency exchange settlement will be operated in accordance with the contract.

Then, we took into consideration only a fluctuation of the exchange rate. The scenarios that we analyzed covers different positions of the dollar against the euro: weak dollar (USD 1,48/EUR), stable dollar (USD 1,22/EUR) and strong dollar (USD 1,01/EUR). Different coverage of costs with hedging was also introduced in the analysis. The three main policies are of not hedging, 100% hedging with forward contracts and 100% hedging with options.

Aspen has become a public company with more risk adverse investors who want to invest in the core business of the firm and not assume any foreign exchange risk. Foreign exchange risk is a core risk to Aspen’s business because they have many customers outside of the United States. We believe that transferring this risk to the customers would limit Aspen’s growth on the foreign markets: Aspen should keep its current marketing strategy, which includes credit installment payments and payments in local currencies for Japan, the UK and Germany. The current risk management program hurts the company because it doesnot consider Aspen’s expenses abroad that balance sales exposures to currency fluctuations. We then recommend that

Financial theory offers several rationales for financial risk management. Hedging enables firms to maintain their access to internal funds as well as reduces the costs of financial distress. The theoretical framework offers, however, few tools for currency risk identification and for choosing a proper hedging instrument. This Thesis seeks to help firms manage risks better by defining the currency risk exposures of a multinational corporation, by describing their effects on the cash flows, profit and loss and balance sheet of the corporation as well as by comparing the applicability of currency forwards and currency options in hedging these exposures. The exposure framework is constructed based on an

the possibility of a loss because of changes in the value of a foreign currency

Hedging can be defined as a risk management mechanism or strategy which is used to prevent the chances of incurring losses which arise as a result of fall in prices commodities or currencies. It is a technique which is majorly used by the investors in protecting their capital against the effects of the economic situations such as inflation whereby the investors invests in the high yield financial instruments or take a position to cushion them against such effects (Investopedia, 2012).

When done well, the financial, strategic, and operational benefits of hedging can go beyond merely avoiding financial distress by opening up options to preserve and create value. But done poorly, FX hedging can overwhelm the logic behind it and can actually destroy more value than was originally at risk. Perhaps individual business units hedge opposite sides of the same risk, or managers expend too much effort hedging risks that are immaterial to a company’s health. Managers can also underestimate the full costs of hedging or overlook natural hedges, instead applying costly financial ones. Nevertheless, a few simple pointers can help avoid problems and make hedging strategies more effective.

A hedge is a position to minimize unwanted risk or to manage operating and transaction exposure. The goal is to compensate the loss in value of one item with the increase in value of the offsetting item. There are different reasons for hedging a position; first of all, the price increase and the fluctuation of price are volatile. Secondly, every company should have a fixed calculation basis or price basis to plan a short and long-term horizon. If not every buyer of a company does not know how to deal with the budget. Furthermore, there are a lot of different possibilities to hedge a position, but the easiest way is hedging with complete specific financial vehicles. Without hedging is business nowadays impossible

There are four main methods for hedging the currency exposure of DEM; Forward, Money Market, Futures and Currency Options. Each alternative has different timing of cash flows and costs.