Foreign 
Exchange 
Risk
Geneva: 
6 
May 
2010 
2 
Buy 
Sell 
1.06993 
1.14009 
Is 
AMEX 
buying 
and 
selling 
Swiss 
francs 
or 
dollars 
at 
these 
rates? 
When 
you 
arrive 
you 
sell 
$1 
for 
1.07 
SFr 
When 
you 
depart 
you 
buy 
$1 
for 
1.14SFr 
AMEX 
is 
buying 
and 
selling 
USD 
in 
terms 
of 
CHF 
USD / CHF Bid 
1.06993 
Ask 
1.14009 
Buy 
1 USD for 
1.14009 CHF 
Sell 
1 USD for 
1.06993 CHF 
Buy 
1 CHF for 
0.93464 USD 
Sell 
1 
CHF for 
0.87712 USD
Geneva: 
20 
May 
2011 
3 
Buy 
Sell 
.85305 
0.90899 
When 
you 
arrive 
you 
sell 
$1 
for 
.85 
SFr 
When 
you 
depart 
you 
buy 
$1 
for 
.91 
SFr 
Or 
equivalently 
When 
you 
arrive 
you 
buy 
1 
SFr 
for 
$1.17 
When 
you 
depart 
you 
sell 
1 
SFr 
for 
$1.10 
USD / CHF Bid 
0.85305 
Ask 
0.90899 
Buy 
1 USD for 
0.90899 CHF 
Sell 
1 USD for 
0.85305 CHF 
Buy 
1 CHF for 
1.17226 USD 
Sell 
1 
CHF for 
1.10012 USD
CHF 
/ 
USD 
Three 
Year 
Chart 
4 
May 
2010 
0.897666 
August 
2011 
May 
2011 
1.133196 
Did 
I 
have 
exchange 
rate 
(FX) 
risk 
between 
1.374079 
the 
me 
I 
booked 
the 
trip 
and 
the 
me 
I 
arrived 
and 
incurred 
expenses 
in 
francs? 
How 
about 
U.S. 
businesses 
that 
buy 
or 
sell 
products 
in 
Switzerland?
FX 
Notaon 
EUR 
/ 
USD 
1.4021 
Terms or quote 
currency 
1 
EUR = = 
Buy 
the 
commodity 
currency 
using 
(selling) 
the 
terms 
currency 
(1 
Bbl) 
WTI 
Crude 
Oil 
/ 
USD 
82 
(1 
oz) 
Gold 
/ 
USD 
1700 
5 
Commodity or base 
currency 
1.4021 
1 
USD 
1 
EUR 1.4021 
USD 
Live 
Quotes
USD 
/ 
CHF 
Three 
Year 
Chart 
6
How 
many 
CHF 
for 
1 
USD 
? 
7
FX 
Bid 
and 
Offer 
(Ask) 
¨ EUR 
/ 
USD 
1.4480 
-­‐ 
1.4485 
¨ or 
without 
the 
‘big 
numbers’ 
or 
‘handle’ 
in 
the 
offer 
rate 
EUR/USD 
1.4480 
– 
85 
¨ Smallest 
increment 
is 
.0001 
= 
1 
pip 
¤ One 
ck 
in 
rate 
in 
terms 
currency 
in 
least 
significant 
figure 
¨ Example 
¤ If 
€125,000 
is 
being 
bought 
and 
sold 
in 
matched 
trades, 
the 
dealer 
makes 
a 
profit 
of 
5 
pips 
at 
$12.50 
per 
pip 
or 
$62.5 
¤ The 
AMEX 
dealer 
at 
the 
Geneva 
airport 
made 
575 
pips 
on 
a 
matched 
trade 
8 
Bid Offer (Ask) 
Live 
Bid 
– 
Offer 
Rates
FX 
Bid 
and 
Offer 
(Ask) 
9 
Interbank 
rates 
Bid 
/ 
Ask 
(Offer) 
You 
Sell 
/ 
You 
Buy 
Dealer 
buys 
/ 
Dealer 
Sells 
You 
get 
the 
worse 
of 
the 
two 
rates 
ISO 
Currency 
Codes
Reciprocal 
FX 
Rates 
EUR/USD 
SB 
– 
SO 
EUR/USD 
1.3447 
– 
1.3464 
1 
USD/EUR 
0.7427 
-­‐ 
0.7437 
10 
Spot 
Spot 
Bid 
Ask 
(Offer) 
O B S 
S 
USD/EUR 
1 − 
EUR / USD Bid 
1.3447 
Ask 
1.3464 
Buy 
1 EUR for 
1.3464 USD 
Sell 
1 EUR for 
1.3447 USD 
Buy 
1 USD for 
0.7437 EUR 
Sell 
1 
USD for 
0.7427 EUR 
USD / EUR Bid 
0.7427 
Ask 
0.7437 
Buy 
1 USD for 
0.7437 EUR 
Sell 
1 USD for 
0.7427 EUR 
Buy 
1 EUR for 
1.3464 USD 
Sell 
1 
EUR for 
1.3447 USD
Buy 
and 
Sell 
Round 
Trip 
At 
A 
FX 
Kiosk 
11 
$ 
100.00 Sell 
USD 
Fr. 
85.31 Receive 
Fr. 
5.00 Selling 
commission 
Fr. 
80.31 Actual 
Receipt 
Fr. 
5.00 Buying 
commission 
Fr. 
75.31 Actual 
sale 
$ 
82.84 Receipt 
USD / CHF Bid 
0.8531 
Ask 
0.9090 
Buy 
1 USD for 
0.9090 CHF 
Sell 
1 USD for 
0.8531 CHF 
Buy 
1 CHF for 
1.1723 USD 
Sell 
1 
CHF for 
1.1001 USD 
559 
pips 
and 
a 
6.349% 
spread 
The 
interbank 
rate 
is 
5 
pips
Long 
Term 
FX 
Rate: 
USD/ 
CHF 
12
Japanese 
Yen 
¥ 
USD 
/ 
JPY 
13 
Yen 
News
Long 
Term 
FX 
Rate: 
USD/ 
JPY 
14 
JPY / USD Bid 
0.007660 
Ask 
0.007665 
Buy 
1 JPY for 
0.007665 USD 
Sell 
1 JPY for 
0.007660 USD 
Buy 
1 USD for 
130.5483 JPY 
Sell 
1 
USD for 
130.4631 JPY
Euro 
€ 
EUR 
/ 
USD 
15
Hong 
Kong 
Dollar 
HK$ 
USD 
/ 
HKD 
16
Chinese 
Yuan 
¥ 
USD 
/ 
CNY 
17
Zimbabwe 
Dollar 
$ 
USD 
/ 
ZWD 
18
Personal 
FX 
Tips 
¨ Foreign 
Travel 
¤ FX 
kiosks 
at 
airports 
n Banks 
n Travel 
agents 
n Amex 
Travel 
, 
Thomas 
Cook, 
Travelex 
¤ ATM 
¤ Credit 
cards 
¤ Traveler’s 
Checks 
19 
Foreign 
Exchange 
Markets 
or 
Securies 
• OTC 
currency 
contracts 
• Spot, 
forwards 
• FX 
Futures 
and 
opons 
• CME 
• ETF 
• Wisdomtree 
• CurrencyShares 
• Mutual 
Funds 
• MERK 
Funds 
• Hedge 
Funds
US 
Dollar 
Index 
DXY 
20 
Currency Weight 
Euro 57.7% 
Japanese 
Yen 13.7% 
British 
Pound 12.0% 
Canadian 
Dollar 9.2% 
Swedish 
Krona 4.3% 
Swiss 
Franc 3.7%
Singapore 
Dollar 
USD 
/ 
SGD 
21
400 
350 
300 
250 
200 
150 
100 
50 
0 
r f f 
− − 
i i 1 
i f 
-­‐4.0%-­‐3.5%-­‐3.0%-­‐2.5%-­‐2.0%-­‐1.5%-­‐1.0%-­‐0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 
Frequency 
Daily 
Rate 
of 
Change 
Stascal 
Analysis 
22 
3,823 
daily 
rates, 
ri, 
of 
change 
from 
1996 
to 
2011 
USD 
/ 
SGD 
Mean: 
-­‐.007 
Standard 
deviaon: 
0.376% 
(remove 
the 
bad 
cks) 
i − 
1 
=
Stascal 
Analysis 
-­‐4.0% -­‐3.5% -­‐3.0% -­‐2.5% -­‐2.0% -­‐1.5% -­‐1.0% -­‐0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 
Daily 
Rate 
of 
Change 
23 
The 
daily 
change 
rates 
are 
not 
normal, 
but 
are 
uni-­‐modal 
and 
leptokurc. 
Qualitavely 
un-­‐ 
skewed 
with 
exponenally 
decreasing 
tails. 
Very 
important 
in 
stascs 
is 
whether 
a 
random 
variable 
is 
independent, 
idencally 
distributed 
and 
has 
finite 
variance.
Autocorrelaon 
of 
Change 
Rates 
24 
1 
0.9 
0.8 
0.7 
0.6 
0.5 
0.4 
0.3 
0.2 
0.1 
0 
-­‐0.1 
-­‐0.2 
-­‐0.3 
Independence 
is 
oren 
checked 
by 
non-­‐auto-­‐ 
correlaon 
of 
rates 
and 
variance 
of 
rates. 
Autocorrelaon 
of 
simple 
rates 
of 
return 
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 
Autocorrelation 
Lag 
[Days]
Autocorrelaon 
of 
Change 
Rate 
Variance 
25 
1.0 
0.9 
0.8 
0.7 
0.6 
0.5 
0.4 
0.3 
0.2 
0.1 
0.0 
Autocorrelaon 
of 
de-­‐trended 
squared 
rates 
of 
return 
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 
Autocorrelation 
Lag 
[Days]
Correlaon 
Visualizaon 
26 
Developed 
by 
Erich 
Neuwirth 
ρ 
= 
-­‐.2 
ρ 
= 
.3
Financial 
Risk 
-­‐ 
Frank 
Knight’s 
Insight 
¨ University 
of 
Chicago 
, 
1921 
¨ Disnguished 
between 
risk 
and 
uncertainty 
¨ Risk 
– 
future 
financial 
outcomes 
can 
be 
quanfied 
and 
managed 
via 
probabilies 
due 
to 
sufficient 
frequency 
of 
relevant 
historical 
events 
¤ Risk 
is 
quanfied 
and 
managed 
via 
mathemacal 
models 
¨ Uncertainty 
– 
future 
financial 
outcomes 
cannot 
be 
quanfied 
and 
managed 
with 
probabilies 
due 
to 
infrequency 
of 
relevant 
historical 
events 
¤ Uncertainty 
is 
managed 
via 
n risk 
reducing 
contracts 
n global 
operaons
Money 
28 
Federal 
Reserve 
Balance 
Sheet 
Assets 
Gold 
US 
Treasuries 
US 
Agencies 
MBS 
Bear 
Stearns 
assets 
Etc 
Liabiles 
Bank 
deposits 
Currency 
Etc 
Capital 
The 
main 
funcons 
of 
money 
are: 
a 
medium 
of 
exchange; 
a 
unit 
of 
account; 
a 
store 
of 
value;
Currency 
29
Currency 
30
China 
Trade 
and 
Currency 
Flows 
31 
USD CNY 
Bank 
of 
China 
Balance 
Sheet 
Assets 
Liabilies 
UST 
Yuan 
currency 
and 
deposits 
US 
consumers 
businesses 
Chinese 
Company 
Products 
US Treas 
UST 
USD 
Bank 
of 
China 
$ 
US 
Fed 
UST 
US Fed 
Primary 
Dealers 
Bond 
Market 
UST $
Purchasing 
Power 
Parity 
32 
An economic 
theory that 
estimates the 
adjustment 
needed in the 
exchange rate 
between countries 
in order for the 
exchange to be 
equivalent to each 
currency's 
purchasing power. 
investopedia
Purchasing 
Power 
Parity 
33
Essenal 
Concepts 
¨ FX 
rate 
notaon 
¤ Direct 
and 
reciprocal 
¨ Exchanged 
traded 
and 
pegged 
currencies 
¨ Bid 
and 
offer 
spreads 
on 
FX 
and 
securies 
¨ Time 
series 
analysis 
¤ FX 
trend 
and 
volality 
¤ Independence 
and 
auto-­‐correlaon 
¨ Risk 
and 
uncertainty 
¨ Money 
¨ Foreign 
Trade 
34
Discussion 
Links 
¨ New 
Fee 
to 
Bank 
Cash 
¨ Swissy 
Plummets 
On 
Rumor 
Swiss 
Banks 
To 
Charge 
For 
CHF 
Deposits 
¨ Live 
Interbank 
Rates 
¨ Financial 
Repression 
¨ CME 
FX 
¤ Note 
CHF 
futures 
contract 
at 
CME 
is 
reciprocal 
of 
that 
at 
the 
Geneva 
kiosk 
¨ Franc, 
Yen, 
Dollar 
Tumble 
as 
Stock 
Rally 
Curbs 
Haven 
Demand; 
Rand 
Climbs 
35
FX 
Risk 
Management 
¨ Manage 
uncertainty 
¤ Unknown 
future 
FX 
rate 
¤ Long 
term 
contracts 
¤ Lock 
in 
future 
rates 
¤ Next 
chapter 
n Full 
hedge 
with 
forwards 
¨ Manage 
risk 
¤ Stascal 
models 
of 
FX 
rate 
of 
change 
¤ Fluctuaons 
or 
volality 
n Standard 
deviaon 
of 
rate 
of 
change 
36

Fx risk

  • 1.
  • 2.
    Geneva: 6 May 2010 2 Buy Sell 1.06993 1.14009 Is AMEX buying and selling Swiss francs or dollars at these rates? When you arrive you sell $1 for 1.07 SFr When you depart you buy $1 for 1.14SFr AMEX is buying and selling USD in terms of CHF USD / CHF Bid 1.06993 Ask 1.14009 Buy 1 USD for 1.14009 CHF Sell 1 USD for 1.06993 CHF Buy 1 CHF for 0.93464 USD Sell 1 CHF for 0.87712 USD
  • 3.
    Geneva: 20 May 2011 3 Buy Sell .85305 0.90899 When you arrive you sell $1 for .85 SFr When you depart you buy $1 for .91 SFr Or equivalently When you arrive you buy 1 SFr for $1.17 When you depart you sell 1 SFr for $1.10 USD / CHF Bid 0.85305 Ask 0.90899 Buy 1 USD for 0.90899 CHF Sell 1 USD for 0.85305 CHF Buy 1 CHF for 1.17226 USD Sell 1 CHF for 1.10012 USD
  • 4.
    CHF / USD Three Year Chart 4 May 2010 0.897666 August 2011 May 2011 1.133196 Did I have exchange rate (FX) risk between 1.374079 the me I booked the trip and the me I arrived and incurred expenses in francs? How about U.S. businesses that buy or sell products in Switzerland?
  • 5.
    FX Notaon EUR / USD 1.4021 Terms or quote currency 1 EUR = = Buy the commodity currency using (selling) the terms currency (1 Bbl) WTI Crude Oil / USD 82 (1 oz) Gold / USD 1700 5 Commodity or base currency 1.4021 1 USD 1 EUR 1.4021 USD Live Quotes
  • 6.
    USD / CHF Three Year Chart 6
  • 7.
    How many CHF for 1 USD ? 7
  • 8.
    FX Bid and Offer (Ask) ¨ EUR / USD 1.4480 -­‐ 1.4485 ¨ or without the ‘big numbers’ or ‘handle’ in the offer rate EUR/USD 1.4480 – 85 ¨ Smallest increment is .0001 = 1 pip ¤ One ck in rate in terms currency in least significant figure ¨ Example ¤ If €125,000 is being bought and sold in matched trades, the dealer makes a profit of 5 pips at $12.50 per pip or $62.5 ¤ The AMEX dealer at the Geneva airport made 575 pips on a matched trade 8 Bid Offer (Ask) Live Bid – Offer Rates
  • 9.
    FX Bid and Offer (Ask) 9 Interbank rates Bid / Ask (Offer) You Sell / You Buy Dealer buys / Dealer Sells You get the worse of the two rates ISO Currency Codes
  • 10.
    Reciprocal FX Rates EUR/USD SB – SO EUR/USD 1.3447 – 1.3464 1 USD/EUR 0.7427 -­‐ 0.7437 10 Spot Spot Bid Ask (Offer) O B S S USD/EUR 1 − EUR / USD Bid 1.3447 Ask 1.3464 Buy 1 EUR for 1.3464 USD Sell 1 EUR for 1.3447 USD Buy 1 USD for 0.7437 EUR Sell 1 USD for 0.7427 EUR USD / EUR Bid 0.7427 Ask 0.7437 Buy 1 USD for 0.7437 EUR Sell 1 USD for 0.7427 EUR Buy 1 EUR for 1.3464 USD Sell 1 EUR for 1.3447 USD
  • 11.
    Buy and Sell Round Trip At A FX Kiosk 11 $ 100.00 Sell USD Fr. 85.31 Receive Fr. 5.00 Selling commission Fr. 80.31 Actual Receipt Fr. 5.00 Buying commission Fr. 75.31 Actual sale $ 82.84 Receipt USD / CHF Bid 0.8531 Ask 0.9090 Buy 1 USD for 0.9090 CHF Sell 1 USD for 0.8531 CHF Buy 1 CHF for 1.1723 USD Sell 1 CHF for 1.1001 USD 559 pips and a 6.349% spread The interbank rate is 5 pips
  • 12.
    Long Term FX Rate: USD/ CHF 12
  • 13.
    Japanese Yen ¥ USD / JPY 13 Yen News
  • 14.
    Long Term FX Rate: USD/ JPY 14 JPY / USD Bid 0.007660 Ask 0.007665 Buy 1 JPY for 0.007665 USD Sell 1 JPY for 0.007660 USD Buy 1 USD for 130.5483 JPY Sell 1 USD for 130.4631 JPY
  • 15.
    Euro € EUR / USD 15
  • 16.
    Hong Kong Dollar HK$ USD / HKD 16
  • 17.
    Chinese Yuan ¥ USD / CNY 17
  • 18.
    Zimbabwe Dollar $ USD / ZWD 18
  • 19.
    Personal FX Tips ¨ Foreign Travel ¤ FX kiosks at airports n Banks n Travel agents n Amex Travel , Thomas Cook, Travelex ¤ ATM ¤ Credit cards ¤ Traveler’s Checks 19 Foreign Exchange Markets or Securies • OTC currency contracts • Spot, forwards • FX Futures and opons • CME • ETF • Wisdomtree • CurrencyShares • Mutual Funds • MERK Funds • Hedge Funds
  • 20.
    US Dollar Index DXY 20 Currency Weight Euro 57.7% Japanese Yen 13.7% British Pound 12.0% Canadian Dollar 9.2% Swedish Krona 4.3% Swiss Franc 3.7%
  • 21.
  • 22.
    400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 r f f − − i i 1 i f -­‐4.0%-­‐3.5%-­‐3.0%-­‐2.5%-­‐2.0%-­‐1.5%-­‐1.0%-­‐0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% Frequency Daily Rate of Change Stascal Analysis 22 3,823 daily rates, ri, of change from 1996 to 2011 USD / SGD Mean: -­‐.007 Standard deviaon: 0.376% (remove the bad cks) i − 1 =
  • 23.
    Stascal Analysis -­‐4.0%-­‐3.5% -­‐3.0% -­‐2.5% -­‐2.0% -­‐1.5% -­‐1.0% -­‐0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% Daily Rate of Change 23 The daily change rates are not normal, but are uni-­‐modal and leptokurc. Qualitavely un-­‐ skewed with exponenally decreasing tails. Very important in stascs is whether a random variable is independent, idencally distributed and has finite variance.
  • 24.
    Autocorrelaon of Change Rates 24 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 -­‐0.1 -­‐0.2 -­‐0.3 Independence is oren checked by non-­‐auto-­‐ correlaon of rates and variance of rates. Autocorrelaon of simple rates of return 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 Autocorrelation Lag [Days]
  • 25.
    Autocorrelaon of Change Rate Variance 25 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 Autocorrelaon of de-­‐trended squared rates of return 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Autocorrelation Lag [Days]
  • 26.
    Correlaon Visualizaon 26 Developed by Erich Neuwirth ρ = -­‐.2 ρ = .3
  • 27.
    Financial Risk -­‐ Frank Knight’s Insight ¨ University of Chicago , 1921 ¨ Disnguished between risk and uncertainty ¨ Risk – future financial outcomes can be quanfied and managed via probabilies due to sufficient frequency of relevant historical events ¤ Risk is quanfied and managed via mathemacal models ¨ Uncertainty – future financial outcomes cannot be quanfied and managed with probabilies due to infrequency of relevant historical events ¤ Uncertainty is managed via n risk reducing contracts n global operaons
  • 28.
    Money 28 Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Assets Gold US Treasuries US Agencies MBS Bear Stearns assets Etc Liabiles Bank deposits Currency Etc Capital The main funcons of money are: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value;
  • 29.
  • 30.
  • 31.
    China Trade and Currency Flows 31 USD CNY Bank of China Balance Sheet Assets Liabilies UST Yuan currency and deposits US consumers businesses Chinese Company Products US Treas UST USD Bank of China $ US Fed UST US Fed Primary Dealers Bond Market UST $
  • 32.
    Purchasing Power Parity 32 An economic theory that estimates the adjustment needed in the exchange rate between countries in order for the exchange to be equivalent to each currency's purchasing power. investopedia
  • 33.
  • 34.
    Essenal Concepts ¨FX rate notaon ¤ Direct and reciprocal ¨ Exchanged traded and pegged currencies ¨ Bid and offer spreads on FX and securies ¨ Time series analysis ¤ FX trend and volality ¤ Independence and auto-­‐correlaon ¨ Risk and uncertainty ¨ Money ¨ Foreign Trade 34
  • 35.
    Discussion Links ¨New Fee to Bank Cash ¨ Swissy Plummets On Rumor Swiss Banks To Charge For CHF Deposits ¨ Live Interbank Rates ¨ Financial Repression ¨ CME FX ¤ Note CHF futures contract at CME is reciprocal of that at the Geneva kiosk ¨ Franc, Yen, Dollar Tumble as Stock Rally Curbs Haven Demand; Rand Climbs 35
  • 36.
    FX Risk Management ¨ Manage uncertainty ¤ Unknown future FX rate ¤ Long term contracts ¤ Lock in future rates ¤ Next chapter n Full hedge with forwards ¨ Manage risk ¤ Stascal models of FX rate of change ¤ Fluctuaons or volality n Standard deviaon of rate of change 36