exchange rate movements

Paper instructions:
Go to a source that allows you to assess recent exchange rate movements (such as Yahoo.finance) of RMB/USD trends over the past year.

Go to cmegroup.com to obtain the current (making sure to include the date you select) futures price for the RMB (with respect to the USD). Make sure to include the specific maturity date of the futures contract you select (try to find one with a maturity date of approximately one year from now). You will click on “FX” to obtain futures Globex price quotes.

Compare the current spot rate for the RMB to the current futures price from the data above (use current data only).

Question 1 – Do the futures prices exhibit a premium or a discount. How do you interpret this result with regards to the expectation of an appreciation or depreciation of the RMB in the future?

Question 2 – Would your Internet business pay a higher or lower rate when converting RMB into dollars than if you converted funds at the prevailing spot rate? Is this good or bad news for the Revenue (A/R) your business will earn from its Chinese customers over the coming year?

Go to www.bis.org/ (or the foreign Central Bank’s own website) to learn about the Central Bank of China.

Question 3 – According to this website, is the exchange rate system used by the Central Bank of China a fixed-rate or floating-rate system? Describe the Bank of China ’s role of central bank intervention, that is, under what circumstances does it intervene and what is it seeking to accomplish?

Question 4 – Explain how and why this information is/might be important for your business, not only its management of currency risk, but also for the stability of your cash flows (A/R and A/P).