Foreign Currency Futures: Some Further Aspects

The basic mechanic of buying and selling foreign currency futures on the International Monetary Market (IMM, the division of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on which financial futures are traded) were described in an earlier article in this review. That article explained the nature of currency future contracts and showed how such contracts could be used to hedge exchange rate risks arising from commitments to receive or pay foreign currencies at future dates. It also explained how such contracts typically provide enormous leverage for transactors who deliberately seek to use exchange rate risk, i.e., to speculate on a change in the dollar price of one or more leading foreign currencies, including British pounds, Canadian dollars, Deutsche marks, Japanese yen, Mexican pesos and Swiss francs.