Glossaire

A limit order, in the context of foregin exchange risk management, is an order to buy or sell a currency forward at a specific exchange rate or better. This exchange rate is determined by the treasury team. A buy limit order can only be executed at the limit exchange rate or lower; a sell limit order can only be executed at the limit exchange rate or higher.  Limit orders are the most common type of conditional orders.

Conditional orders are sophisticated trading instructions that are automatically executed when predetermined market conditions are met, specifically designed for budget hedging to ensure systematic protection of target exchange rates. These orders are strategically set across different exposure partitions so that their weighted average execution rate precisely matches the foreign exchange rate that requires protection, providing automated and disciplined hedging execution.

Other conditional orders, used in Currency Management Automation solutions like Dynamic Hedging, are stop-loss orders and take-profit orders. For example, a British company that pays a China-based supplier USD 1 million every 3 months must exchange GBP to USD in order to complete the transactions.  If the current exchange rate is GBP-USD 1.30, the company may impose a limit order to buy USD at an exchange rate no lower than GBP-USD 1.28. If USD appreciates to GBP/USD1.25, the company will have stemmed the FX losses through its limit order at 1.28.