Stop orders are an excellent tool for those wanting to send a large amount of money abroad as they can be used to automatically do the currency conversion if the rate moves against you to minimize currency exposure.
There are a few types of stop orders in the foreign exchange market.
Using a Stop as an Entry
A stop entry would be used if you expect the currency rate to move in your favour and are prepared to risk a little bit for that to happen.
Example: If you needed to convert £100,000 into USD for a purchase in a weeks time. The current rate was 1.50 you would receive USD 150,000 at the currency rate.
However, you feel the rate may improve and go up to 1.55. If it did you would receive USD 155,000 (an additional $5,000).
The danger of waiting for an exchange rate to reach your predicted level is that it may in fact move against you in that time and drop to 1.45. Meaning that when you sell your £100,000 you only get $145,000.
By using a stop entry order you can limit your downside risk, while still allowing for any upside potential before converting funds. By placing a stop entry order at 1.49 you would be using the time available before you need funds to see if the price improves. You would also be protecting your downside with the stop so if the currency price went against you to 1.45 the conversion would be done at 1.49.
In this example using a stop entry order you would be risking $1,000 on the downside to potential gain $5,000 if the currency rate hit your target.
You could also use a limit order to do the conversion at your target rate of 1.55.
Watch our video on how stop orders can be used when converting currency here:
This interview was recorded on 13th August 2019 with Mark Phipps from Linear International Payments
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