Book focuses on hedging for smaller companies

Tim Bishop, author of the new book Hedging Commodity Price Risk: A Small Business Perspective, has never been a scrap trader, but his experience with companies in the oil industry has allowed him to view hedging from several angles.

 

Bishop has served as treasurer of a heating oil distributor and as a board member for an oceanfront oil terminal and has been responsible for compliance with financial reporting standards, tax law and debt covenants.

 

He says his new e-book  is aimed primarily at small businesses that would like to more effectively manage the risk of fluctuations in commodity prices, interest rates, weather or foreign currency exchange rates. It also may be helpful to lenders, directors, lawyers and accountants affiliated with such companies, who are exposed to hedging through their association with these small businesses.

 

“Hedging confuses most people,” says Bishop. “There are certainly many books out there on hedging, but most of them are extremely complex and aimed at either financial professionals or academia,” he continues. “I wanted my book to fill a gap in the market. It is for the small businessperson who doesn’t have the time or patience to pore over masses of complex explanations and mathematical formulas, who needs practical information to help run his or her business more effectively and more profitably.”

 

Bishop’s book outlines different types of commodity price risks that can be hedged and introduces hedging tools designed to address those risks. The book also presents an overview of how the financial markets that trade these hedging tools work. Additional content describes the types of risks that arise when one does hedge. There is also a commentary on accounting for hedges.

 

Hedging Commodity Price Risk: A Small Business Perspective is published by Open Road Press and retails for $9.99. It is available at www.Amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and at www.openroadpress.com/store/#hedging.