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FX Initiative Blog

Actionable insights on foreign exchange risk management from FX Initiative.

Preparing FX Risk Policies

Preparing FX Risk Policies (Video): Explore how global firms such as Apple formally plan clear parameters and guidelines for managing foreign currency risk. This video is a preview of FX Initiative’s FX Risk Management course as part of Learning Objective #2.

 

To learn more, start your FX risk management training today, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples & events at FXCPE.com.

 

Fine-tuning FX Forecasting

Fine-tuning FX Forecasting (Video): Find out how FX forecasters use technical and fundamental analysis to predict future exchange rates. This video is a preview of FX Initiative’s FX Market Overview course as part of Learning Objective #4.

 

To learn more, start your FX risk management training today, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples & events at FXCPE.com.

 

July 2021 Newsletter

Summer Learning Sessions: Explore our July newsletter and discover the latest blog posts and insights from FX Initiative. We help finance, accounting, treasury, and sales professionals stay up to date with new training content, CPE webinars, and helpful tips & resources.

Get started with our foreign exchange risk management training, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples and events at FXCPE.com. Start Training >

 

Prioritizing Professional Development Plans

Professional development in the workplace often refers to required employee training in areas such as workplace safety, corporate policies, and industry specific rules and regulations. While this training is commonplace in the corporate setting, it rarely provides value add to the employee or organization in terms of job performance and profitability.

FX Initiative's approach to professional development focuses on practical employee training and delivering actionable insights. We start by identifying knowledge gaps using our Pre-Test Evaluation, then we close those knowledge gaps with our on-demand educational videos, and we reinforce our learning concepts using real-world examples.

Professionals tasked with foreign exchange risk management often know their goals and objectives, but struggle with how to achieve them due to lack of training. Without practicing what you've learned and investing time and resources into education, it seems unrealistic to expect positive bottom line results and achievement of target plans.

The organizations FX Initiative works with recognize that investing in quality training that directly relates to employee job responsibilities benefits both the employee and the bottom line. Not only are employees more knowledgeable and capable after completing our training, but they are able to apply their knowledge for the benefit of their customers and the firm.

FX training is a win-win outcome.

  1. FX sales teams are able to have deeper conversations with clients, gain a better understanding of problems and available solutions, and secure long-term relationships that are mutually beneficial to both parties.
  2. Treasury professionals are able to significantly reduce FX gains and losses, preserve cash flows from FX transactions, and articulate their results more clearly and confidently to senior management.

FX Initiative's Currency Risk Management Training provides a valuable turnkey plan for learning foreign exchange that helps FX sales teams collaborate more effectively with treasury professionals. FX service providers and global firms can take full advantage of our unique FX training opportunity by proactively investing in their employees and organizations. Professional development is no longer something to simply check off the list, it is now a priority for global companies and their employees to remain competitive and profitable.

To learn more, start your FX risk management training today, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples & events at FXCPE.com.

 
 

Summarizing FX Supply & Demand

Summarizing FX Supply & Demand (Video): Explore how supply and demand factors influence foreign exchange (FX) rate fluctuations. This video is a preview of FX Initiative’s FX Market Overview course as part of Learning Objective #4.

 

To learn more, start your FX risk management training today, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples & events at FXCPE.com.

 

Exploring FX Economic Risk

Exploring FX Economic Risk (Video): Explore the concept of foreign exchange (FX) economic risk and recognize its macro impact on the financial statements and global business opportunities. This video is a preview of FX Initiative’s FX Risk Exposures course as part of Learning Objective #1.

 

To learn more, start your FX risk management training today, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples & events at FXCPE.com.

 

Simulating FX Hedging Strategies

To become proficient in any skill, including currency risk management, practice makes perfect. To help companies practice in 2021, FX Initiative’s Foreign Exchange Transaction Simulator addresses a wide variety of FX scenarios by stress-testing hypothetical FX hedging strategies.

This interactive risk modeling tool illustrates the economics and accounting of the most common hedging strategies for underlying foreign exchange exposures such as revenues, expenses, receivables, and payables. You can simply input your company specific and foreign exchange market variables, and then select your hedging strategy, which includes not hedging or hedging with a forward contract, vanilla option or zero cost collar.

The resulting output is a highly detailed interactive FX risk analysis that charts the economic payoff of your selected hedging strategy, ranks the alternative hedging strategies, and reports the accounting journal entries and t-accounts with authoritative references to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Behind the scenes, our robust pricing engine and database simplifies the risk analysis process for you so you can focus on the bottom line impact to your business.

This versatile tool transforms 16 inputs into one information rich analysis in 3 easy steps.

  • Step 1 is to select (1) the Underlying Exposure and input the related variables of (2) Functional Currency, (3) Foreign Currency, (4) Underlying Notional Amount, (5) Beginning Exchange Rate, (6) Currency Quoting Convention, (7) Start Date, (8) End Date and (9) the Day Count.
  • Step 2 is to select a (10) Hedging Strategy and input the related variables of (11) Hedge Ratio %, (12) Domestic Interest Rate, (13) Foreign Interest Rate, (14) Implied Volatility, and (15) the Collar Range.
  • Step 3 is to forecast (16) the ending exchange rate to see how positive and negative changes in exchange rates impact the cash flow and financial reporting of your selected hedging strategy.

This FX risk management web application customizes strategies and can be modified efficiently and effectively. For example, if you want to change your underlying exposure or hedge strategy, it’s as simple as one-click. If you want to know which strategy yields the best outcome, all 4 strategies are ranked for you automatically. If you want to see how the default or elective accounting treatment differ, the journal entries and t-accounts are instantly presented side-by-side. This Foreign Exchange Transaction Simulator acts as your own personal quantitative analyst, and puts you in a positions to make a qualified foreign exchange risk management decisions.

To begin practicing hypothetical FX hedging, start your FX risk management training today, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples & events at FXCPE.com.

CPE Webinar Invite: FX Risk Management Policies

Program Overview

FX Initiative cordially invites you to attend our webinar titled “FX Risk Management Policies” on Thursday, February 11th, 2021 at 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern. Join us for a continuing professional education (CPE) program and earn CPE credit as we learn how to draft a corporate foreign exchange risk management policy. This FX Risk Policy webinar will address the basics for drafting a foreign exchange risk management policy. We begin with best practice policies for pricing and booking foreign exchange (FX) transactions that enable a corporation to retain the FX risk rather than the customer, supplier or vendor. We then discuss how FX personnel, resources and operations are incorporated into a policy document that serves as a guideline for managing foreign exchange risk. Furthermore, we will cover the essential elements of a formal written FX risk management policy, including which FX exposures to hedge, how to handle counterparty credit risk, segregation of duties (SOD), internal controls, and reporting among other areas. Lastly, we will observe how FX risk policy language is disclosed in corporate annual reports (10-K) using the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings of multinational corporations as real-world examples.

Learning Objectives
  1. Discover best practice policies for pricing and booking foreign exchange (FX) transactions.
  2. Recognize how to incorporate FX personnel, resources, and operations into a policy document.
  3. Identify the essential elements of a formal written corporate FX risk management policy.
  4. Explore how FX risk policy language is disclosed in corporate annual reports (10-K).
Who Should Attend?

New and seasoned finance, accounting, treasury, and related professionals (CPA, CIA, CRMA, CFE, etc.) interested in international business.

Winter FX CPE Webinar Schedule

FX Initiative cordially invites you to attend our upcoming webinar series titled “Mastering Currency Risk Management.” To complement our self-study video training, these sessions are designed address common FX strategies and challenges global organizations encounter when managing currency risk. Each live webinar is eligible for CPE credit, and offers the ability to interact with the instructor, engage with the audience through real time polling questions, and participate in question and answer segments.

Upcoming Webinars Sessions & Dates

Mastering Currency Risk
Thursday, January 28th 2021 @ 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern
Learn the fundamentals of corporate foreign exchange risk management.

FX Risk Management Policies
Thursday, February 11th @ 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern
Learn how to draft a corporate foreign exchange risk management policy.

FX Forward Contracts
Thursday, February 25th 2021 @ 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern
Learn what forward contracts are and why they are the most used derivative.

Balance Sheet Hedging
Thursday, March 11th 2021 @ 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern
Learn how to hedge FX receivables & payables and mitigate gains & losses.

Cash Flow Hedging
Thursday, March 25th 2021 @ 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern
Learn how to hedge and account for forecasted FX revenues & expenses.

Whether you are interested in a timely session related to recent developments impacting the foreign exchange market or would like a scheduled approach to start learning FX risk management, our live webinar sessions are designed to help you solve unique FX risk management challenges that are not otherwise addressed in our video based programs. Explore our Events page to register and learn more about the learning objectives covered in our educational webinar series titled “Mastering Currency Risk Management.”

Happy Thanksgiving from FX Initiative!

Happy Thanksgiving from FX Initiative! We’re thankful for our wonderful team members and clients.

To our valued team members, we are grateful for all you’ve done for our business this year. All of your hard work, dedication, and resilience has helped us reach our organization’s goals for 2020. On this holiday, we want to make sure you know how much you’re appreciated as a member of our team and how much we value your contributions.

To our valued clients, we want to share our genuine appreciation with you. Without you, we would not be where we are today, and we’re so thankful for all of your support throughout unprecedented times in 2020. We hope you have a joyous holiday and we look forward to serving your foreign exchange risk management needs well into the future.

On behalf of FX Initiative, we wish you, your family, and loved ones a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.