Foreign Exchange Markets Research Paper

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Forward, Futures and Options Foreign Currency Markets

Review of Foreign Exchange Markets

Assessment of Foreign exchange Markets

Forward, Futures and Options Foreign Currency Markets

Forward currency market entails an agreement for sale or purchase of foreign currency at a set price and at a particular date. In this agreement, final cash settlements are undertaken only on the set date where the contracting parties realize their gain or loss. Forward currency contract is a private agreement that is not undertaken over -- the counter making the contract more flexible and less standardized compared to futures contract (Eiteman, Stonehill, & Moffett, 2001).

Futures contract is a standardized agreement trades on exchanges or in over-the-counter markets. The agreement is between the seller and the buyer where the seller is referred to as the one taking a short position and the seller is referred to as the one taking the long positing. For the agreement to be arrived at, a specification of underlying exchange is some detail is required. A statement of the size of the contract, the value of the exchange, the delivery location and the expiry date must also be given. To reflect the changes in the settlement market a futures contract is highlighted in the market on daily basis (Eiteman et al., 2001).

An option is a contract that extends the parties right to sell or buy specified value of a currency (asset) at a specified price at some time in the future. This is however, not an enforcing obligation upon the parties since they have the derogative to act upon the option if it to their advantage.
Given the derogative to act when it is advantageous to them the option has a premium payable at the inception of the contract. This aspect makes options contact significantly different from the forward or futures contract. The buyer has the "call option" giving them the right to buy currency while, the seller has the "put option" giving him/her the derogative to sell currency (Copeland, 2008).

Arbitrage problems in international finance

Forward contract shortcomings sets in where it is difficult to get a counter party willing to fix future rate for the time and amount in question. As a tool to mitigate in exchange rate risk management, forward contract have no formal trading facility that can support management of risk associated with currency trading. In the absence of willing party to undertake possible loss or gain makes it difficult to relay on forward contract to safe guard international trading (Copeland, 2008).

Considering a company undertakes to construct a road in foreign country at a set future date on an agreed amount. The company enters into contract with a local bank to fix the current exchange rate in line with the payment date for the construction company. The bank on the other hand may have to find a counter party. This would be a party willing to hedge against appreciation of the foreign country's currency or one wishing to speculate an upward trend of the….....

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assets owned by foreign countries within the domestic nation and the net financial derivatives. There are three kinds of foreign exchange markets that include the fixed, managed floating and the independent floating exchange rate systems. The elements of the foreign exchange market includes the forex market, which is split into the spot market, futures market and forward market. The international monetary system has evolved over the years. It started out with the gold standard where the monetary system had different currencies pegging their currencies to the market value of gold. This moved on to the Bretton Woods Agreement that included an international system having the U.S. dollar pegged at… Continue Reading...

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