In today's financial climate, risk management can no longer remain the preserve of the select few. Every manager in every business must have knowledge and expertise to control the financial challenges they face. Hedging financial risk is the most fundamental and effective technique of protecting a business against adverse market conditions. What is more, in the world of business, profits are largely the result of successful risk-taking. Rocket-science is not a prerequisite of hedging. You don't even need a trading or financial background to be able to learn how to put the principles into good practice. The concepts and many of the executions of hedging are surprisingly simple. So do you need the plain facts? And how can you trim your risk with your eyes open? Starting with the fundamentals, The Business of Hedging is a systematic and clearly explained tour of financial risk management. The Business of Hedging analyses the concept of risk and the various forms it can take, and illustrates how hedging can be used as a countermeasure.The book dispels the mystique of high finance that surrounds the art of hedging and brings it back down to the people that need it most - the ordinary business person. It describes: *the various forms of risk, such as interest rate risk, foreign exchange risk, and commodity price risk *shows how these can have adverse effects on your business *reviews the different tools available to neutralise these including: forwards, swaps, futures and options, *illustrates how best to apply them to everyday business. *shows the strategies used by top companies around the world over the last century and a half, and describes how you can use the same techniques within your own company.