Sunday, May 17, 2009

Forex Trading Example 2

The investor follows the cross rate between the Euro and the Japanese yen. He believes that this market is headed for a fall. As he is less confident of this trade, he does not fully use the leverage available on his deposit. He chooses to ask the dealer for a quote in EUR 1,000,000. This requires a margin of EUR 1,000,000 x 5% = EUR 50,000 = approx. USD 52,500 (EUR/USD 1.05).
The dealer quotes 112.05-10. The investor sells EUR at 112.05.
Day 1: Sell EUR 1,000,000 vs JPY 112.05 = Buy JPY 112,050,000.
He protects his position with a stop-loss order to buy back the euro at 112.60. Two days later, this stop is triggered as the euro strengthens short term in spite of the investor’s expectations.
Day 3: Buy EUR 1,000,000 vs JPY 112.60 = Sell JPY 112,600,000.
The EUR side involves a credit and a debit of EUR 1,000,000. Therefore, the EUR account shows no change. The JPY account is credited JPY112.05m and debited JPY112.6m for a loss of JPY 0.55m. Due to the the short time horizon of the trade and simplicity of the example, we have disregarded the interest rate swap that would marginally alter the loss calculation.
This results in a loss of JPY 0.55m = approx. USD 5,300 (USD/JPY 105) = 5.3% loss on the original deposit of USD 100,000.

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