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FX Initiative Blog

Actionable insights on foreign exchange risk management from FX Initiative.

November 2020 Newsletter

November Knowledge & Networking: Read our November newsletter and discover the latest blog posts and insights from FX Initiative on currency risk management. We help finance, accounting, treasury, and sales professionals stay up to date with new training content, CPE webinars, and helpful tips & resources.

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

October 2020 Newsletter

Explore Fall Virtual Events: Read our October newsletter and discover the latest blog posts and insights from FX Initiative on currency risk management. We help finance, accounting, treasury, and sales professionals stay up to date with new training content, CPE webinars, and helpful tips & resources.

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

Simulating Foreign Exchange Strategies

In the field of foreign exchange (FX), companies are managing currency risk exposures and hedging strategies more effectively by using business intelligence (BI) tools that provide data analysis and visualization. To support global businesses, FX Initiative offers a unique suite of specialized simulation tools that model common FX risk management strategies and demonstrate best practices for preserving assets on the balance sheet and mitigating FX gains on losses on the income statement.

Our FX Transaction Simulator helps treasury professionals gain valuable insight by modeling the economic and accounting impact of specific hedging strategies for underlying foreign exchange exposures such as revenues, expenses, receivables, and payables. Users can simply input their company specific and foreign exchange market variables, and then test a variety of hedging strategies, which include 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. The first step 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. The third and final step 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.

By leveraging our suite of FX risk modeling tools, finance, accounting, and treasury professionals can address a wide variety of FX scenarios that can be customized 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 FX Transaction Simulator acts as your own personal quantitative analyst, and puts you in a position to make more qualified foreign exchange risk management decisions.

To start simulating FX strategies, 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.

September 2020 Newsletter

Fall FX Training & Tips: Explore our September newsletter and discover the latest blog posts and insights from FX Initiative on currency risk management. We help finance, accounting, treasury, and sales professionals stay up to date with new training content, CPE webinars, and helpful tips & resources.

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

August 2020 Newsletter

Summer Learning Sessions: Explore our August 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.

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

July 2020 Newsletter

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

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

June 2020 Newsletter

Explore our June newsletter and discover the latest blog posts and insights from FX Initiative on currency risk management. We help finance, accounting, treasury, and sales professionals stay up to date with new training content, CPE webinars, and helpful tips & resources.

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

May 2020 Newsletter

Making May Training Meaningful: Explore our May 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.

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

April 2020 Newsletter

Explore our April newsletter and discover the latest blog posts and insights from FX Initiative on currency risk management. We help finance, accounting, treasury, and sales professionals stay up to date with new training content, CPE webinars, and helpful tips & resources.

Scale the learning curve quickly and easily 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 >

 

FX Strategy Simulation - Option Contracts

FX Strategy Simulation - Option Contracts: To illustrate the concept of option contracts, this FX strategy simulation uses the Foreign Exchange Derivative Speculator to model the economic and accounting aspects of a put and a call option. These examples demonstrate the economics and accounting of option contracts, and show how variables such as the option strike rate and implied volatility impact the premium or cost of the option at inception.

Additionally, the asymmetrical payoff profile of an option is highlighted using the economic chart, and the accounting is clarified using journal entries and t-accounts. From a cash flow perspective, emphasis is placed on the fact that options can finish "in the money" where a cash payment is received at maturity, or "out of the money" with a zero fair value where no further payment is required to settle the contract.

Overall, the three key distinguishing characteristics of vanilla option contracts, compared to forwards and option combinations, are (1) that a premium is paid upfront, (2) there is an asymmetrical payoff profile relative to the spot foreign exchange rate, and (3) there is no obligation to make a payment at maturity. For additional information and examples, explore our on-demand self-study CPE course titled FX Spot & Derivatives.

 

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.