Currency Overlay: A Practical Guide

By providing solutions to real-life problems and issues that have actually been raised by investment managers Currency Overlay: A Practical Guide is the most relevant and tested guide available to you. It discusses the myriad of available approaches, styles and philosophies to clarify the concept of currency overlay management and presents a balanced and objective overview of both the return and risk aspects of currency in investment portfolios.

Currency overlay works by effectively managing your risk whilst adding significant value to your investment portfolio – and as an investment discipline it is widely regarded to offer a far greater consistency of success than any other.

Hai Xin provides you with all the necessary information you need to set up a currency management programme or to choose one from the market that best suits your investment portfolio. For funds already equipped with a currency management policy this practical guide will provide an objective yardstick for policy review.

As one of the first titles on the market to focus specifically on currency overlay you will find no better guide. Until now you had to rely on often impractical and biased information drawn from a variety of sources. With Currency Overlay you will save time and effort with all the vital information you need succinctly packaged into one manageable volume. What's more, with minimal technical knowledge required you will find this extensively referenced title both highly accessible and practical with examples illustrated with clear diagrams and figures throughout.

What's more Currency Overlay’s comprehensive approach covers the full spectrum of related theoretical and practical topics including: defining and decomposing currency returns, foreign exchange research and currency management styles, optimisation and hedge ratio, benchmark design and performance measurement, option pricing theory and dynamic hedging, emerging market currencies, liquidity and e-commerce.

Hai Xin has been a Financial Engineer with the Investment Bank division of UBS (previously Swissbank Corporation, SBC Warburg, SBC Warburg Dillon Read, Warburg Dillon Read, and UBS Warburg - a succession of names that betokens a small anecdote in the consolidation of the banking sector) since 1996. The team of which he is a member, FX Financial Engineering, is a specialist group within FX Distributions at UBS that provides bespoke solutions for UBS's corporate and institutional clients. Between 2000 and 2002 Hai Xin was permanently inside the "Chinese wall" of UBS's Investment Banking Division, advising on currency risks embedded in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. Prior to joining UBS he worked as a researcher at AstraZeneca Treasury.

Hai Xin obtained his Ph.D. in Quantitative Finance from Imperial College, London, and M.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics, both part of the University of London. His bachelor's degree is in Electronics and Information Science. Dr Hai Xin is also a director and major shareholder of a start-up ethnic health food manufacturing company based in the UK.