Currency Hedging
Luis Figueroa
University of Phoenix
MGT-448 ? Global Business Strategy
Leslie Syring
February 5, 2006
Currency Hedging
When a company decides to expand into the global business arena it will have to deal with many new issues that would not have affected them otherwise. The exchange rate is a very important factor in international business that must be continually monitored. Any changes in the exchange rate can significantly impact how a global organization operates. There are ways a company can protect itself from these risks, forward exchange rates and currency swaps (Hill, 2002). As business continuously expands into the global arena more organizations are finding it necessary to pay close attention to foreign exchange market. These companies must follow the foreign exchange market closely and should develop appropriate hedging strategies to protect themselves. Exchange rate risk is the unexpected exchange rate that may cause an organization to lose or gain income. Currency hedging is a method of minimizing the financial and exchange rate risk for an international organization. Companies involved in global operations should have a good understanding of the financial risks its company will face prior to starting its venture (http://www.finpipe.com/hedge.htm).
Currency Swaps
According to our text, "a currency swap is the simultaneous purchase and sale of a given amount of foreign exchange for two different value dates (Hill, 2002). Here is an example of a currency swap. The organization I work for purchases some of the components of its video units from Germany; it later s ...