Hedging
Risk management.
1.
Traditionally, hedging referred to the process whereby a firm uses financial instruments (such as forward contracts, futures contracts or options) or other techniques to reduce the impact of fluctuations in such factors as the market price of credit, foreign exchange rates, or commodity prices on its profits or corporate value.
For example, entering a foreign exchange forward contract to sell an expected future foreign currency receipt.
Other techniques included operational or structural responses, for example re-locating manufacturing or assembly to align the currencies of costs with revenues.
Following such successful structuring, the organisation may then be said to be 'naturally' hedged.
2.
The application of hedging techniques was then extended to the management of many other risks including, for example, inflation and longevity risk arising in pension funds.
See also
- Arbitrage
- Authorisation
- Covering
- Deal contingent forward
- Delta hedging
- Effective
- Financial instrument
- Foreign exchange forward contract
- Futures
- Guide to risk management
- Hedge accounting
- Hedge fund
- Insurance
- Interest rate guarantee
- Macro hedging
- Option
- Outturn
- Overhedging
- Pre-hedging
- Pre-settlement risk
- Reduce
- Risk response
- Speculation
- Transfer
- Uncovered
- Underhedging
- Warehousing
