近年來，各國政府致力於減少市場干預，加強金融自由化，以市場機制來決定資產價格。然此舉雖然符合經濟學家的主流意見，卻也衍生出新的挑戰，例如國際資本流動的自由化，使得金融市場的不確定性與風險大為增加，無論金融機構或企業都不得不提高警覺、重視部位避險，以免使機構暴露過高的風險，而承受過大的損失。另一個極端的例子是亞洲金融風暴，在泰國宣布放棄固定匯率制度，並動用上百億美元的外匯存底，仍無法阻止泰銖貶值，而後續的印尼盾、菲律賓披索、馬來西亞幣，韓圜等貨幣連番劇貶後，連帶基本面健全的新加坡、香港、台灣，也無法倖免於匯率貶值。可見匯率波動為企業損益帶來不可預知之風險，過去如此，未來更不可忽視。台灣廠商大都是以進、出口型態為主，匯率避險愈加重要。本文針對實務上，台灣企業常見之匯率避險操作(比較使用外匯選擇權與傳統遠期外匯避險的差異)提出說明，並以選擇權評價理論的發展，說明銀行為了滿足企業需求，針對日益複雜的衍生性商品，除了必須掌握商品的風險特徵，更必須尋找與實踐相對可行且有效率的評價理論，以作為提高市場競爭力的基礎。這正反映了知識經濟已經不是口號，而且毫無疑問地，已經融入我們生活當中。 In recent years, deregulation becomes the main-stream trend in financial market over Asian countries. It brings the liberalization. However, the free flow of capitals, in particular with some capitals are mainly for speculation, increases the volatilities and hence the risks in Asian financial market. Hedging becomes more and more important for the corporations in the region. Most of the factories/corporations in Taiwan are doing international trade business and they are basically import-export type companies. Foreign exchange risk affects their business performance and is one of the major risks they try to minimise. Hedging on foreign exchange risk is therefore a critical topic to reduce negative impacts caused by price changes in the financial market. This paper makes a description of the development of theories on foreign exchange derivative instruments (i.e. FX Options) and takes six examples (including Plain Vanilla, Exotic and Combination) to illustrate the difference between using FX-Forward and Options. It also shows how the FX Options are applied in hedging for the corporations in Taiwan. The analysis describes the profit and loss at maturity in details using different examples. Efficiency between binomial and trinomial trees is also discussed. The pricing and application of any FX derivative are actually based on the models and strategies which are published in many academic papers and/or journals by different contributors. This reflects that "Knowledge is Power" and "Knowledge Economic" is not only a watchword but undoubtedly it is exactly blended into our life.
