Effective cross-hedging for commodity currencies

Abstract

There has been little evidence in the past to support the use of commodity-currency cross-hedges (Demaskey and Pearce, 1998; Benet, 1990; Eaker and Grant, 1987). However, this paper shows that if currencies can be defined as commodity currencies, as per Chen and Rogoff (2003) and Cashin, Céspedes and Sahay (2004), commodity currency cross-hedges are effective and beneficial. Two commodity currencies, the Papua New Guinea kina and the Australian dollar, are shown here to be effectively hedged by commodity futures. Multiple commodity hedges generally improved performance, with four-commodity basket hedges effective for both currencies.