NXW Investment Library · 6 modules · 22 chapters

Forex & Crypto Investing

Based on the book Forex and Crypto Investing: From Theory to Practice (Dr MAI Huu Minh)

Exchange rates, FX instruments, blockchains, stablecoins and DeFi, parity theory, carry and hedging, crypto strategies and indexes, risks and scams – with a focus on Asia and Vietnam.

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Contents

6 modules, 22 chapters

Chapter 1 is free to read online; the other chapters open a preview with their objectives and sections.

Module 1 – Foundations

3 chapters

1	What Are Currencies and Crypto-Assets? Money, exchange rates and a new digital asset class 9 sections 1.1 What money does 1.2 Exchange rates and how to read a quote 1.3 Currencies as an asset class 1.4 What is a crypto-asset?1.5 Stablecoins and other tokens 1.6 Why FX and crypto behave differently from stocks and bonds 1.7 Who trades currencies and crypto-assets, and why 1.8 FX and crypto for a Vietnamese investor 1.9 A map of the book	Read FREE
2	A Short History of Money, Exchange Rates and Bitcoin From the gold standard to blockchains 9 sections 2.1 Why history matters to an investor 2.2 Commodity money and the classical gold standard 2.3 Bretton Woods: the dollar at the centre 2.4 Floating rates and managed currencies 2.5 Currency crises 2.6 Currency unions and the rise of Asian currencies 2.7 Bitcoin: money without a central bank 2.8 Ethereum, smart contracts and tokens 2.9 Booms, busts and the arrival of institutions	🔒 Preview
3	How Exchange Rates Are Determined Trade, capital flows and expectations 9 sections 3.1 An exchange rate is a price 3.2 Flows: the balance of payments 3.3 Purchasing power parity: the long-run anchor 3.4 The Big Mac idea 3.5 Interest rates: capital chases yield 3.6 Expectations, risk appetite and safe havens 3.7 Crypto-assets and the dollar 3.8 The dong: a managed exchange rate 3.9 Which driver matters when?	🔒 Preview

Module 2 – Markets and instruments

4 chapters

4	The Foreign Exchange Market: Spot, Forwards and Swaps The biggest market in the world 10 sections 4.1 The biggest market in the world 4.2 Who trades and how 4.3 Reading a spot quote 4.4 Spreads, liquidity and the cost of trading 4.5 Settlement: two days and two currencies 4.6 Forwards: fixing today a rate for later 4.7 FX swaps: the workhorse of the market 4.8 Non-deliverable forwards 4.9 Choosing among the instruments 4.10 The FX market in Vietnam	🔒 Preview
5	Currency Futures, Options and Volatility Tools to hedge and to speculate 9 sections 5.1 From forwards to futures 5.2 Margin, daily settlement and leverage 5.3 Options: rights, not obligations 5.4 What sets the price of an option 5.5 Volatility: realised and implied 5.6 Smiles, skews and risk reversals 5.7 Hedging structures: floors, caps and collars 5.8 The danger of selling options 5.9 Futures and options in Asia and Vietnam	🔒 Preview
6	How Crypto Markets Work: Blockchains, Exchanges and Custody From mining to wallets 10 sections 6.1 A shared ledger 6.2 Proof of work and proof of stake 6.3 Transactions, fees and finality 6.4 Centralised exchanges 6.5 Order books, liquidity and slippage 6.6 Decentralised exchanges 6.7 Keys, wallets and custody 6.8 A market that never closes 6.9 Hacks, failures and safety rules 6.10 Crypto markets seen from Vietnam	🔒 Preview
7	Stablecoins, Tokens and Decentralised Finance The new financial plumbing 10 sections 7.1 The new financial plumbing 7.2 Stablecoins: three designs 7.3 Reserves and redemption 7.4 Depegs: when the peg breaks 7.5 Tokens and token economics 7.6 DeFi lending 7.7 Automated market makers 7.8 Where does DeFi yield come from?7.9 The risks of the new plumbing 7.10 Stablecoins and DeFi in Vietnam and Asia	🔒 Preview

Module 3 – Drivers and theory

4 chapters

8	Interest Rates, Inflation and Parity Conditions The theory of exchange rates 10 sections 8.1 Four links between rates, prices and currencies 8.2 Nominal rates, real rates and the Fisher equation 8.3 Covered interest parity 8.4 When covered parity bends 8.5 Uncovered interest parity 8.6 The forward premium puzzle 8.7 Purchasing power parity 8.8 Real exchange rates and competitiveness 8.9 Applying the theory: what investors can use 8.10 The dong, rates and the opening question	🔒 Preview
9	Central Banks, Capital Flows and Currency Crises Policy, reserves and contagion 10 sections 9.1 The central bank and the currency 9.2 Monetary policy and the exchange rate 9.3 Intervention and sterilisation 9.4 How much reserves are enough?9.5 Exchange-rate regimes 9.6 The impossible trinity 9.7 Capital flows, hot money and sudden stops 9.8 Anatomy of a currency crisis 9.9 What investors can learn 9.10 The State Bank of Vietnam and the dong	🔒 Preview
10	What Drives Crypto Prices? Adoption, liquidity and sentiment 10 sections 10.1 A price without an anchor 10.2 Supply: bitcoin’s fixed schedule 10.3 Supply rules of other tokens 10.4 Adoption and network effects 10.5 On-chain data: reading the ledger 10.6 Liquidity, interest rates and the dollar 10.7 Leverage and liquidation cascades 10.8 Sentiment, narratives and the cycle of fear and greed 10.9 Why valuation is so hard 10.10 Crypto prices seen from Vietnam and Asia	🔒 Preview
11	Risk, Volatility and Correlation in FX and Crypto Measuring what can go wrong 10 sections 11.1 Risk is more than one number 11.2 Volatility: measuring and comparing 11.3 Volatility comes in clusters 11.4 Fat tails: extreme moves happen more often 11.5 Drawdowns: the loss you actually live through 11.6 Correlation: with stocks, gold and each other 11.7 How much risk does a small crypto position add?11.8 Value at risk and expected shortfall 11.9 Stress tests: thinking in scenarios 11.10 Risk seen from Vietnam	🔒 Preview

Module 4 – Strategies

4 chapters

12	Carry, Momentum and Value in Currencies The three classic FX factors 10 sections 12.1 Factors in the currency market 12.2 Carry: borrow low, invest high 12.3 Why carry has paid 12.4 Carry crashes 12.5 Momentum and trend following 12.6 Value: purchasing power parity as an anchor 12.7 Building factor portfolios 12.8 Combining the factors 12.9 Costs, crowding and implementation 12.10 Factors seen from Vietnam and Asia	🔒 Preview
13	Currency Hedging for Investors and Companies Managing exchange-rate risk 9 sections 13.1 Two investments in one 13.2 Three kinds of exposure 13.3 Measuring exposure before hedging it 13.4 The hedging toolkit 13.5 What hedging really costs 13.6 Choosing a hedge ratio 13.7 Companies: exporters and importers 13.8 Hedging international portfolios 13.9 A hedging policy and common mistakes	🔒 Preview
14	Crypto Investment Strategies From buy-and-hold to market neutral 9 sections 14.1 What is a crypto investor paid for?14.2 Buy and hold 14.3 Dollar-cost averaging 14.4 Rebalanced baskets 14.5 Trend and momentum 14.6 Staking and lending 14.7 Basis trades and market-neutral strategies 14.8 Position sizing: how much crypto?14.9 Putting it into practice	🔒 Preview
15	FX and Crypto Indexes Benchmarks for currencies and digital assets 9 sections 15.1 Why indexes for currencies and crypto?15.2 The US dollar index 15.3 Trade-weighted and effective exchange rates 15.4 FX factor indexes 15.5 Crypto indexes: weighting and caps 15.6 Data and reference prices 15.7 Governance: forks, delistings and hard cases 15.8 Two illustrative NXW indexes (simulated)15.9 Indexes for a Vietnamese investor	🔒 Preview

Module 5 – Products and practice

4 chapters

16	FX and Crypto Funds, ETFs and ETPs Choosing a product 10 sections 16.1 Four routes to the same exposure 16.2 Currency funds and hedged share classes 16.3 ETFs, ETNs and ETPs: what is inside the wrapper?16.4 Spot crypto ETFs and ETPs 16.5 Futures-based crypto ETFs 16.6 What a product really costs 16.7 Premiums, discounts and tracking 16.8 Custody and counterparty risk 16.9 A product scorecard 16.10 Products seen from Vietnam and Asia	🔒 Preview
17	Trading Platforms, Brokers and Costs Execution, leverage and safety 9 sections 17.1 Who stands between you and the market?17.2 Retail FX brokers: dealing desks and agency models 17.3 CFDs, margin and leverage 17.4 Crypto platforms: exchanges, brokers and apps 17.5 The all-in cost of a trade 17.6 Execution quality: orders, slippage and gaps 17.7 A safety checklist 17.8 Protecting your own account 17.9 Legal channels and warnings in Vietnam	🔒 Preview
18	Building a Portfolio with Currencies and Crypto Allocation, sizing and rebalancing 9 sections 18.1 Start from the currency you spend 18.2 The currency exposure you already have 18.3 How much foreign currency?18.4 Crypto as a satellite 18.5 Sizing by risk, not by capital 18.6 Two simple sizing rules 18.7 Rebalancing: rules and costs 18.8 An illustrative portfolio in VND 18.9 Monitoring: a simple risk report	🔒 Preview
19	Building and Back-Testing an FX or Crypto Index From prices to a rules-based index in Excel and R 10 sections 19.1 Why build your own index?19.2 Data: what you need 19.3 Cleaning the prices 19.4 Rules: the universe 19.5 Weights and caps 19.6 Calculating the index 19.7 Back-test: the NXW Crypto 10 rules on simulated data 19.8 The engine in R 19.9 Pitfalls: survivorship, look-ahead and delistings 19.10 Publishing the methodology and governance	🔒 Preview

Module 6 – Invest

3 chapters

20	Currencies and Crypto in Vietnam and Asia Markets, rules and practice 9 sections 20.1 Why a chapter on Vietnam and Asia?20.2 The dong: a managed rate and a band 20.3 Foreign-currency rules for residents 20.4 Dollars, gold and remittances 20.5 Hedging tools for companies 20.6 Crypto in Vietnam: adoption and the developing legal framework 20.7 Exchange-rate regimes across Asia 20.8 Crypto regulation across Asia 20.9 Practical rules: what to check	🔒 Preview
21	Risks, Regulation, Scams and Behaviour Protecting yourself 9 sections 21.1 How investors lose everything 21.2 Leverage, margin and liquidation 21.3 Gaps and cascades 21.4 Counterparty and custody failures 21.5 Scams and fraud 21.6 Behavioural traps 21.7 Position sizing and a personal risk budget 21.8 What regulation does – and does not – protect 21.9 A checklist before you invest	🔒 Preview
22	The Future of Money: CBDCs, Tokenisation and AI Where currencies and crypto are heading 10 sections 22.1 Money is changing form again 22.2 Central bank digital currencies 22.3 Designing a CBDC: the hard choices 22.4 Tokenisation of real-world assets 22.5 Stablecoins: private digital dollars 22.6 Faster and cheaper cross-border payments 22.7 AI and data: new tools, new risks 22.8 Will crypto replace currencies?22.9 Principles that will last 22.10 Conclusion: from theory to practice	🔒 Preview

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