The forward market also provides facilities for forward currency transactions. This is a means of enabling the importer or expor

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问题     The forward market also provides facilities for forward currency transactions. This is a means of enabling the importer or exporter to agree a rate of exchange, now, at which a foreign currency will be exchanged for sterling at a future date, usually one, two, three or six months ahead but sometimes one or two years. This rate is fixed regardless of what might have happened to the rate of exchange in the meantime and is particularly useful in an era of floating, and potentially volatile, exchange rates. If, for example, a British importer of US machines which cost $ 3,000 each has to pay in one month’s time he may prefer to buy the currency now for actual delivery in one month’s time. With a current rate of $2.00 to the 1 pound the one month rate may be at a two cent premium ($1.98) or 2 cents dearer than the spot rate. These purchases will therefore cost the importer an additional £ 15 but at least he knows exactly how much it will cost him whatever happens to exchange rates. If the pound had been devalued or floating down during the month the cost could have horn a lot more than £ 15.
    Theoretically there are two alternatives to buying forward:
    1) To buy $3,000 now at the spot rate, pay interest on any loan to pay for the purchase and invest the dollars for one month.
    2) Pay the spot rate in one month’s time whatever the rate might be.
    The facility to buy or sell a currency forward, therefore, enables the importer to fix a definite price which will not be affected by fluctuations in exchange rates.
    Forward exchange markets were temporarily disrupted in 1974 by the collapse of a West German bank which failed to meet its foreign currency obligations. As the foreign exchange markets depend so much on confidence, this collapse led to a temporary contraction in the forward market. However, it has now regained much of the ground lost, indeed in an era of floating rates the forward market is of even more importance to traders in insuring themselves against loss through exchange rate fluctuations.
What is the important function of" the foreign exchange market mentioned in the passage?

选项 A、Its main function is to reduce the risk of fluctuating exchange rates or a change in the parity of currencies.
B、The foreign exchange market can protect the traders against loss through exchange rate fluctuations.
C、The foreign exchange market is the mechanism through which foreign currencies are traded.
D、The important function of the foreign exchange market is to uniform the currency being traded and circulate the knowledge of price changes.

答案B

解析 文中最后一句…indeed in an era of floating rates the forward market is…through exchange rate fluctuations,意指在浮动汇率时代,对于交易者而言,远期市场可以使他们避免由于汇率变动所造成的损失,十分重要。由此可推断这是远期市场一个重要功能。
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