Currency (FX) Options Best Practices

Overview

Eagle supports end-to-end processing of Options on Currency (FX Options) in the Eagle product suite. This document covers the full lifecycle including Accounting, Data Management, and Performance.

An FX Option is a contract giving the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy (call option) or sell (put option) one currency in exchange for another currency at a pre-arranged exchange rate on a specified future date. The payouts are as follows:

  • The writer (seller) of an FX Option receives a premium based on the trade price

  • The buyer of a call is betting that the FX rate between the two underlying currencies will rise above the strike rate/price, allowing the Option to be exercised

  • Conversely, the buyer of a put is betting that the FX rate between the two underlying currencies will fall below the strike rate/price, allowing the Option to be exercised

  • In either case, the writer is betting that the FX Option will not be exercised and therefore expire worthless, allowing the premium to be recorded as a gain

On this page

Related content

Example reference data screens, trade screens, and reports are attached:

Entity Setup

Before any trades can be booked, the target entity must be set up appropriately. Refer to Options Entity Setup Processing Notes for details.

Reference Data

Storage & Configuration

Eagle has modeled FX Option security master files (SMFs) as single rows in Data Management.

Market Data

Because they are exchange-traded, FX Option prices are readily available from a number of vendors.

Security Data

FX Options can be set up and maintained in Issue Viewer, Security Reference Manager (SRM), or Reference Data Center (RDC). The list below contains all fields required to configure an FX Option SMF.

  • Issue Name (961)

  • Primary Asset ID (14) & Type (1432)

  • Processing Security Type (3931) = OPOPCR

  • Price Multiplier (18): typically 1.00

  • Contract Size (19): units of currency to which each contract is entitled

  • Issue Country (1418)

  • Asset Currency (85)

  • Expiration Date (38): date when Accounting will automatically expire the FX Option, unless the entity-level Options and Futures Expiration Delay Days field has been populated

  • Strike Price (67): FX rate/price at which the contract can be exercised or assigned

  • Option Type (1142)

    • American: contract can be exercised or assigned at any time until expiration, assuming the strike price has been reached

    • European: contract can be exercised or assigned on expiration date only

    • Bermudan: functions the same way as American in Accounting; this option exists for reference data purposes only

  • Put/Call Flag (1350)

  • Pay Currency (1356)

  • Receive Currency (1357)

Trade Processing

Trades are entered using Book Trade once the entity and reference data have been configured. Enter the appropriate entity, security identifier, and trade/settle dates and click Submit to query for the security. Right-click it and select Open or Close. When you right-click the security, the options for opening and closing it will depend on whether the entity-level Net Option Positions field is set to Yes or No.

Open & Close

The fields below are used for both opens and closes.

  • Contracts (40): number of contracts being transacted

  • Price Per Contract (45): multiplied by Contracts, Contract Size, and Price Multiplier to calculate the premium

  • Commission Per Contract (971): this is multiplied by Contracts to calculate Commission Amount Local, which is factored into the net amount

  • Tax Amount (46), SEC Fee (48), Stamp Duty Tax (51), Other Fee (3752): these are added to the premium and commission to generate the total net amount

  • Settlement Currency (63): if an FX Option’s trade premium settles in a currency that differs from its Asset Currency, this must be changed to the appropriate currency

  • Broker (88)

Field

Open > Long

Open > Short

Close > Long

Close > Short

Field

Open > Long

Open > Short

Close > Long

Close > Short

Event Type (55)

BUY

WRITE

SELL

BUYCVR

Long-Short Indicator (15)

L (LONG)

S (SHORT)

L (LONG)

S (SHORT)

Net Option Positions (639) = No

Creates a long position (long with positive quantity).

Creates a short position (short with positive quantity).

Closes (partially or fully) a previously established long position.

Closes (partially or fully) a previously established short position.

Net Option Positions (639) = Yes

Creates a long position (long with positive quantity) or closes a previously established short position (long with negative quantity).

N/A

Creates a short position (long with negative quantity) or closes a previously established long position (long with positive quantity)

N/A

Accounting

Once an FX Option trade is booked, it will be picked up in Eagle’s global workflow. Accounting valuation is calculated when posting unrealized gain/loss and Data Management valuation is calculated in STAR to PACE. These can be scheduled or triggered manually.

Valuation

FX Options are valued using unit prices. The market value formula is:

  • Market Value = # of Contracts * Contract Size * Price * Price Multiplier

Exercise/Assign

Exercises and assignments are processed using Book Trade > Other > Currency Option Cash Exercise or Currency Option Physical Exercise. By definition purchased FX Options are exercised and written FX Options are assigned, but they use the same process in Accounting.

Settlement

FX Options can be exercised or assigned using cash or physical settlement. Cash settlement is simply an exchange of money based on the exercise price. Physical settlement results in spot transactions against the underlying pay and receive currencies.

Cash Settlement

Note: exercise price is the Price Per Contract (45) entered on the Exercise screen.

Option Type

Transaction Type

Cash Direction

Cash Amount

Gain (Loss)

Option Type

Transaction Type

Cash Direction

Cash Amount

Gain (Loss)

Call or Put

Purchased (Long)

Receipt

# of contracts exercised * contract size * exercise price * price multiplier

# of contracts exercised * contract size * (exercise price - option open price) * price multiplier

Call or Put

Written (Short)

Disbursement

# of contracts exercised * contract size * exercise price * price multiplier

# of contracts exercised * contract size * (option open price - exercise price) * price multiplier

Physical Settlement Cash Flows

Purchased (Long) Call or Put

  • Sell Currency: Pay Currency from SMF, a disbursement will be created for this amount

    • Disbursement = # of contracts exercised * Contract Size * Price Multiplier

  • Buy Currency: Receive Currency from SMF, a receipt will be created for this amount

    • Receipt = (# of contracts exercised * Contract Size * Price Multiplier) / Strike Price

Written (Short) Call or Put

  • Sell Currency: Receive Currency from SMF, a disbursement will be created for this amount  

    •  Disbursement = # of contracts assigned * Contract Size * Price Multiplier

  • Buy Currency: Pay Currency from SMF, a receipt will be created for this amount   

    • Receipt = (# of contracts assigned * Contract Size * Price Multiplier) / Strike Price

Canceling Exercise/Assign Events

Canceling an exercise or assign event requires the use of Batch Cancel Trades. Query for the appropriate date range, entity, and security, then set Choose Trade to Cancel (962) = the target exercise/assign event. This will roll back the exercise/assign event by removing the actions on underlying currencies and restoring the original position. FX Option trades can be canceled using the regular Cancel Trade panel or rebooked using Cancel & Rebook Trade.

Expire

If the contract is not closed prior, Accounting will expire the FX Option on expiration date plus the number of days defined in the entity’s Options and Futures Expiration Delay Days election.

Reporting

STAR to PACE (S2P)

Almost all reports in Eagle leverage data from Data Management, which is populated by the S2P process. This will be scheduled as part of the daily workflow, but can also be triggered manually as described in the Accounting section.

The S2P process creates a single row for each FX Option in the POSITION, POSITION_DETAIL, TRADE, and CASH_ACTIVITY tables. The MARKET_VALUE_INCOME column captures the total market value. Cash activity is appropriately signed based on whether the FX Option is bought or written.

Accounting Reports

Eagle has a core set of accounting reports that can be used to review FX Option information. These are designed to support the daily operational workflow for business users, allowing Grid Reports to be easily exported to Excel and customized to provide additional details as needed. Advanced Reports are intended to be client-facing and do not provide the same level of customization.

Insurance Reporting

Data Management Reporting

Performance

The performance toolkit calculates market value-based performance for FX Options using data supplied by the S2P process. However, this can be misleading because traditional market values do not capture an Option’s true exposure. Exposure-based analyses, which can be implemented using Eagle Enrichment, calculate more meaningful returns. The documentation and .egl files linked below as attachments are available for beta testing. Additional details are available in Exposure Reporting Best Practices and the Eagle Enrichment User Guide 2015.

Automation

Refer to Options Automation Processing Notes for general information about options security setup and trade processing via Message Center.

Sample messages for the standard interfaces are listed below.

Transaction Type

Default Message Center Stream

Sample Files

Transaction Type

Default Message Center Stream

Sample Files

SMF Setup

eagle_default_in_csv_smf

Trades

eagle_default_in_csv_trades OR
eagle_default_in_csv_all