Showing posts with label FX forward contract. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FX forward contract. Show all posts

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Why Traders need FX Forward Contract?

FX forward contract is an agreement between two parties involved in foreign exchange transaction. Both the parties with the help of forex specialist fixed the exchange rate for a future transaction. This transaction will be held on a specific date of future and the amount is also known. The rates fixed in this type of agreement are known as forward exchange rates. Once both the parties sign FX forward contract, none of them can quit the contract before executing it.

Traders in forex choose FX forward contract to hedge their transaction from the unfavorable movement of forex. However, it is impossible to predict exchange rates of any currency but traders are mitigating the possible chances of negative forex movements at the specific future date. Many reputed forex firms offer the scheme or product of FX forward contract to protect their hard eared money. It may also possible that while executing transaction on a future date, market reach in a favorable condition and you may loss a good opportunity to make profit. The time to execute contract varies based on the clients requirements. However, it is within 1 year. It is a fact that every luxury comes for money and same thing applies to forward contract as well. Forex specialist firms charge some interest rates based on the time decided to execute transaction. There is a standard formula to calculate the interest amount in a forward contract. Parties can fix 1month, 2month, 3 months or any period within 1 year to complete the order. This time span in forex terminology is also known as delivery time or maturity time.

There are businesses who make large transactions overseas on a regular basis. For them security of their funds is the first priority. They trade in forex as a means to transfer money abroad, not with an aim to earn profit. Forward rates are fixed on basis of spot rates or current rates of the market. If company X from US is making transaction with the company Y in UK and finds that the current market condition is positive for them, they can lock the spot rates choosing forward contract scheme.

Saturday, 3 September 2011

FX Forward Contract to Protect your Hard Earned Cash

FX forward contract is in introduced in forex market with the primary purpose of hedging foreign currency investment of the global clients. FX forward contract is an agreement between two parties where in the rate for future delivery of transaction is decided based on the current market situation. This locked exchange rate is known as “forward exchange rate”. There are mainly two types of forward exchange rates: one is premium and another is discount forward exchange rates.

Before understanding forward exchange rate, it is important to know one more terminology-spot rate. Spot rate is the current market rate for particular currency. When FX forward contract is offering forward rate which is higher than spot rate of that currency, it is known as premium and in exactly reverse condition when forward rate is lower than the spot rate, it is known as discount. To understand this premium and discount FX forward contract, let's consider the following example:

The quotes for currency pair GBP/USD are as below :
GBP/USD spot :: 1.95/97
GBP/USD 3 months :: 1.96/99

In above example, you can see that the spot rate of GBP/USD is 1.95 and after 3 months banks can offer the forward rate of 1.96 means GBP would be more expensive at that time. Thus, GBP is premium against USD.

There is one more terminology which is related to FX forward contract rate and spot rate. It is “swap points”. Swap point is the difference between the spot rate and forward rate. Let's calculate the swap points for above example:

1.96-1.95/1.99-1.97=1/2(swap points low/high)

If we know the spot rate and premium or discount then we can calculate FX forward rate:

Like in example discussed above spot rate was 1.95 and if forward premium is 2 for 3 months then the forward exchange rate offered by bank or forex firm will be 1.97.