Hedging currency risk using futures

The purpose of this paper is to determine the best way to hedge currency risk using futures contracts. Various techniques of hedging currency risk are compared, and a new method is proposed. This paper also documents the duration and the expiration effects on the optimal hedge ratio. The main finding of this paper is that, of the techniques examined, the hedge ratio derived by Vishwanath (1993) performs the best. This paper also finds that as the duration of the hedge increases, the hedge ratio increases. For one week and two weeks duration hedges, as the time left to futures contract expiration increases, the hedge ratio increases and there is linear relationship. The results are not as pronounced for four and six-week duration hedges.