How to Use Currency Exposures in Molecule

Updated by Ken Maranian

This guide explains how to view and work with currency exposures in Molecule as delivered in the July 2025 release. It also covers the feature’s current scope and limitations, so you know what to expect.

1. What Currency Exposures Show

Currency exposures tell you how changes in foreign exchange (FX) rates affect your positions. Molecule calculates these automatically for trades and fees involving a currency other than your account’s base currency.

You can use this data to:

  • Identify and measure FX risk
  • Plan hedge amounts and maturities
  • Monitor changes in exposure over time
2. Molecule calculates exposures for:
  • FX trades — forwards, swaps, non-delivering forwards
  • Commodity trades in a foreign (non-reporting) currency
  • Fees in a the same currency as the trade currency
3. How Exposures Are Calculated

Molecule uses a side one / side two model per trade:

  • Side 1 = trade price leg (buy/sell amount in trade currency)
  • Side 2 = mark-to-market leg (valuation in trade currency)

Exposure Types in Molecule In reports and API results, each leg will show an exposure_type of either:

  • Explicit – Direct foreign currency cash flows
    • Example: EUR settlement when base currency is USD; GBP fees from a USD account; foreign currency physical delivery
    • Immediate need to convert currency
  • Implicit – FX rate risk without a direct cash flow
    • Example: EUR-priced trade settling in USD; unrealized P&L in a foreign currency
    • Impacts P&L as FX rates move; usually ends when FX rate is fixed

Examples:

  • FX forward: Side 1 shows base currency amount; Side 2 may be zero if already in reporting currency.
  • Commodity trade in GBP (base EUR): Side 1 shows GBP trade amount; Side 2 shows GBP mark-to-market.
5. Getting Currency Exposures via API
  • Detail endpoint: /api/v2/currency_exposures/detail
  • Summary endpoint: /api/v2/currency_exposures/summary

Each record includes:

  • currency, exposure_type, amount, fixing_date
  • trade_id, product, counterparty

Requires currency_exposures role. Contact administrator to enable exposure access

6. Prerequisites Before You See Data
  1. Feature must be enabled by Molecule.
  2. FX curves must be loaded via API (no UI yet).
  3. Marks must be loaded for valuations to run — FX rates alone aren’t enough.

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