Foreign Exchange

Categories: Forex, International

There’s risk when you buy and sell goods and services outside of the U.S. You’re SmoothiesNAbsinthe, a major chain of 1,000 smoothie shops. You buy a million bananas a year. The customers believe that they have...a peal. You buy all of them...plantains, actually...the little guys from Uganda…and just agree to pay in Ugandan shillings. One U.S. dollar converts to about 4,000 Ugandan shillings. That’s a lotta bananas.

You take the risk on the foreign exchange currency risk, and don’t hedge your bets. That is, if you were nervous about relative currency valuation fluxuations, you could be a kind of currency life insurance in paying a 10-20 percent premium above where the relative currencies are trading today...that 4,000-to-1 thing...and you could sleep pretty well at night knowing that your rates were fixed.

But you didn’t.

So then, all of a sudden, China decides to adopt Uganda as its new financial partner, agreeing to underwrite all of Uganda’s debts, basically in return for, well...owning Uganda. And the highly prized URL uganda.com. So then, almost literally overnight, the Ugandan shilling becomes highly more valued under the deeply respected and feared auspices of the Chinese banking system.

Instead of a dollar buying you 4,000 shillings, now a U.S. dollar only buys you 1,000...so your cost of bananas went from 400 bucks a ton to 1,600 bucks...and the marginal cost of bananas in your shakes went from 30 cents to over a dollar twenty. And with profit margin per shake at only 2.50 to start with, the new profit margins suddenly drop almost in half.

Eventually you’ll have to find another banana supplier or raise prices or figure out a substitute...but for now, it looks like this foreign exchange deal’s profits will get, uh…eaten.

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Finance: How does foreign exchange work?11 Views

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Finance allah shmoop how does foreign exchange work All right

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Well there's risk when you buy and sell goods and

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services outside of the u s that isn't there when

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you buy and sell goods inside the u s your

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smoothies and absence a major chain of a thousand smoothie

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shops you buy a million bananas a year the customers

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believe that they have a peel you buy all of

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them plantains actually these little guys from uganda and just

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agreed to pay in ugandan shillings One u s dollar

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buys about four thousand ugandan shillings and that's a lot

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of bananas You take the risk on the foreign exchange

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currency because well you don't like hedging your bets you're

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just going to take the risk if the currency moves

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up or down it's on you horse at another way

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Yeah if you were nervous about relative currency valuation fluctuations

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well you could be a kind of currency life insurance

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in paying a ten or twenty percent premium above where

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the relative currencies air trading today that for thousands of

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one thing and you could sleep pretty well at night

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knowing that your rates were fixed like you're basically paying

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Someone else to take the risk of uganda suddenly getting

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its financial act together in its currency skyrocketing so that

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a u s dollars only buys you three thousand or

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two thousand ugandan shillings or things go the other way

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But you don't like buying insurance You know how nice

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the jets are that insurance executives fly and you know

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about warren buffett He didn't get there for free so

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you didn't had you didn't do anything to worry about

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currency but then all of a sudden china decides to

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adopt uganda as its new financial partner agreeing toe underwrite

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all of uganda's debts basically in return for well uganda

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Yeah they liked owning uganda way better weather and they

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also got the highly prized you r l uganda dot

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com So then almost literally overnight the ugandan shilling becomes

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highly more valued under the deeply respected and feared auspices

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of the chinese banking system So instead of a dollar

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buying you for thousand schillings while now a u s

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dollar only buys you one thousand so your cost of

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bananas just went from four hundred bucks a ton to

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sixteen hundred bucks and the marginal cost of those banana

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Plantain Things in your shakes went from thirty cents over

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a dollar twenty and with profit margin per shake it

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only two fifty to start with twelve new profit margins

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suddenly dropped almost in half Eventually you'll have to find

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another banana supplier or raise prices or figure out a

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substitute But well for now it looks like this Foreign 00:02:29.253 --> [endTime] exchange deals Profits will get eating

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