The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No.133 (SFAS 133) allows firms to apply hedge accounting only to qualified hedges that pass effectiveness tests. Unqualified hedges (speculations) are required to be marked to market, and the unrealized gains/losses are to be recognized in earnings...

We study an extension of a two-period inventory management problem with positively correlated demands in which the manager's compensation is partially based on an external, market-based assessment of the firm's value. As typically the "real'' demand is only observed internally in the firm, the...