国际财务管理课后习题答案解析chapter5.docx

1、国际财务管理课后习题答案解析chapter5CHAPTER 5 THE MARKET FOR FOREIGN EXCHANGESUGGESTED ANSWERS AND SOLUTIONS TO END-OF-CHAPTER QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMSQUESTIONS1. Give a full definition of the market for foreign exchange.Answer: Broadly defined, the foreign exchange (FX) market encompasses the conversion of purchas

2、ing power from one currency into another, bank deposits of foreign currency, the extension of credit denominated in a foreign currency, foreign trade financing, and trading in foreign currency options and futures contracts.2. What is the difference between the retail or client market and the wholesa

3、le or interbank market for foreign exchange?Answer: The market for foreign exchange can be viewed as a two-tier market. One tier is the wholesale or interbank market and the other tier is the retail or client market. International banks provide the core of the FX market. They stand willing to buy or

4、 sell foreign currency for their own account. These international banks serve their retail clients, corporations or individuals, in conducting foreign commerce or making international investment in financial assets that requires foreign exchange. Retail transactions account for only about 14 percent

5、 of FX trades. The other 86 percent is interbank trades between international banks, or non-bank dealers large enough to transact in the interbank market.3. Who are the market participants in the foreign exchange market?Answer: The market participants that comprise the FX market can be categorized i

6、nto five groups: international banks, bank customers, non-bank dealers, FX brokers, and central banks. International banks provide the core of the FX market. Approximately 100 to 200 banks worldwide make a market in foreign exchange, i.e., they stand willing to buy or sell foreign currency for their

7、 own account. These international banks serve their retail clients, the bank customers, in conducting foreign commerce or making international investment in financial assets that requires foreign exchange. Non-bank dealers are large non-bank financial institutions, such as investment banks, mutual f

8、unds, pension funds, and hedge funds, whose size and frequency of trades make it cost- effective to establish their own dealing rooms to trade directly in the interbank market for their foreign exchange needs.Most interbank trades are speculative or arbitrage transactions where market participants a

9、ttempt to correctly judge the future direction of price movements in one currency versus another or attempt to profit from temporary price discrepancies in currencies between competing dealers.FX brokers match dealer orders to buy and sell currencies for a fee, but do not take a position themselves.

10、 Interbank traders use a broker primarily to disseminate as quickly as possible a currency quote to many other dealers.Central banks sometimes intervene in the foreign exchange market in an attempt to influence the price of its currency against that of a major trading partner, or a country that it “

11、fixes” or “pegs” its currency against. Intervention is the process of using foreign currency reserves to buy ones own currency in order to decrease its supply and thus increase its value in the foreign exchange market, or alternatively, selling ones own currency for foreign currency in order to incr

12、ease its supply and lower its price.4. How are foreign exchange transactions between international banks settled?Answer: The interbank market is a network of correspondent banking relationships, with large commercial banks maintaining demand deposit accounts with one another, called correspondent ba

13、nk accounts. The correspondent bank account network allows for the efficient functioning of the foreign exchange market. As an example of how the network of correspondent bank accounts facilities international foreign exchange transactions, consider a U.S. importer desiring to purchase merchandise i

14、nvoiced in guilders from a Dutch exporter. The U.S. importer will contact his bank and inquire about the exchange rate. If the U.S. importer accepts the offered exchange rate, the bank will debit the U.S. importers account for the purchase of the Dutch guilders. The bank will instruct its correspond

15、ent bank in the Netherlands to debit its correspondent bank account the appropriate amount of guilders and to credit the Dutch exporters bank account. The importers bank will then debit its books to offset the debit of U.S. importers account, reflecting the decrease in its correspondent bank account

16、 balance.5. What is meant by a currency trading at a discount or at a premium in the forward market?Answer: The forward market involves contracting today for the future purchase or sale of foreign exchange. The forward price may be the same as the spot price, but usually it is higher (at a premium)

17、or lower (at a discount) than the spot price.6. Why does most interbank currency trading worldwide involve the U.S. dollar?Answer: Trading in currencies worldwide is against a common currency that has international appeal. That currency has been the U.S. dollar since the end of World War II. However

18、, the euro and Japanese yen have started to be used much more as international currencies in recent years. More importantly, trading would be exceedingly cumbersome and difficult to manage if each trader made a market against all other currencies.7. Banks find it necessary to accommodate their clien

19、ts needs to buy or sell FX forward, in many instances for hedging purposes. How can the bank eliminate the currency exposure it has created for itself by accommodating a clients forward transaction?Answer: Swap transactions provide a means for the bank to mitigate the currency exposure in a forward

20、trade. A swap transaction is the simultaneous sale (or purchase) of spot foreign exchange against a forward purchase (or sale) of an approximately equal amount of the foreign currency. To illustrate, suppose a bank customer wants to buy dollars three months forward against British pound sterling. Th

21、e bank can handle this trade for its customer and simultaneously neutralize the exchange rate risk in the trade by selling (borrowed) British pound sterling spot against dollars. The bank will lend the dollars for three months until they are needed to deliver against the dollars it has sold forward.

22、 The British pounds received will be used to liquidate the sterling loan.8. A CD/$ bank trader is currently quoting a small figure bid-ask of 35-40, when the rest of the market is trading at CD1.3436-CD1.3441. What is implied about the traders beliefs by his prices?Answer: The trader must think the

23、Canadian dollar is going to appreciate against the U.S. dollar and therefore he is trying to increase his inventory of Canadian dollars by discouraging purchases of U.S. dollars by standing willing to buy $ at only CD1.3435/$1.00 and offering to sell from inventory at the slightly lower than market

24、price of CD1.3440/$1.00.9. What is triangular arbitrage? What is a condition that will give rise to a triangular arbitrage opportunity?Answer: Triangular arbitrage is the process of trading out of the U.S. dollar into a second currency, then trading it for a third currency, which is in turn traded f

25、or U.S. dollars. The purpose is to earn an arbitrage profit via trading from the second to the third currency when the direct exchange between the two is not in alignment with the cross exchange rate.Most, but not all, currency transactions go through the dollar. Certain banks specialize in making a

26、 direct market between non-dollar currencies, pricing at a narrower bid-ask spread than the cross-rate spread. Nevertheless, the implied cross-rate bid-ask quotations impose a discipline on the non-dollar market makers. If their direct quotes are not consistent with the cross exchange rates, a trian

27、gular arbitrage profit is possible.PROBLEMS1. Using Exhibit 5.4, calculate a cross-rate matrix for the euro, Swiss franc, Japanese yen, and the British pound. Use the most current American term quotes to calculate the cross-rates so that the triangular matrix resulting is similar to the portion abov

28、e the diagonal in Exhibit 5.6.Solution: The cross-rate formula we want to use is:S(j/k) = S($/k)/S($/j).The triangular matrix will contain 4 x (4 + 1)/2 = 10 elements.SF$Euro138.051.5481.68731.3112Japan (100)1.1214.4979.9498Switzerland.4440.8470U.K1.90772. Using Exhibit 5.4, calculate the one-, thre

29、e-, and six-month forward cross-exchange rates between the Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc using the most current quotations. State the forward cross-rates in “Canadian” terms.Solution: The formulas we want to use are:FN(CD/SF) = FN($/SF)/FN($/CD)orFN(CD/SF) = FN(CD/$)/FN(SF/$).We will use the t

30、op formula that uses American term forward exchange rates.F1(CD/SF) = .8485/.8037 = 1.0557 F3(CD/SF) = .8517/.8043 = 1.0589F6(CD/SF) = .8573/.8057 = 1.06403. Restate the following one-, three-, and six-month outright forward European term bid-ask quotes in forward points.Spot 1.3431-1.3436One-Month

31、1.3432-1.3442Three-Month 1.3448-1.3463Six-Month 1.3488-1.3508Solution: One-Month 01-06Three-Month 17-27Six-Month 57-724. Using the spot and outright forward quotes in problem 3, determine the corresponding bid-ask spreads in points. Solution: Spot 5One-Month 10Three-Month 15Six-Month 205. Using Exhi

32、bit 5.4, calculate the one-, three-, and six-month forward premium or discount for the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar using American term quotations. For simplicity, assume each month has 30 days. What is the interpretation of your results?Solution: The formula we want to use is:fN,CD = (FN($/CD) - S($/CD/$)/S($/CD) x 360/Nf1,CD = (.8037 - .8037)/.8037 x 360/30 = .0000f3,CD = (.8043 - .8037)/.8037 x 360/90 = .0030f6,CD = (.8057 - .8037)/.8037 x 360/180 = .0050The p